The Sphere Project Handbook was translated into Azerbaijani and published by Fovgal-Oxfam GB/Azerbaijan partner organisation in 2008 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

From 15 to 18 July 2008, in Tahuna H.Iskandar Leman facilitated an emergency response training for 27 participants (6 among them female) consisted of pre-dominantly local government personnel, Red Cross, local NGOs and a representative of local Christian church. The Sphere Project Humanitarian Charter, Code of Conduct and the Common Standards was introduced to participants. The organizing committee was the local NGO, Perkumpulan Kelola and financially supported by Oxfam GB. 

For further information, please contact H.Iskandar Leman at Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir .

Two Sphere graduates Lessons Learned Workshops were conducted by CWS P/A in Islamabad, Pakistan on 24th June 2008 and in Kabul, Afghanistan on 26th June 2008 to explore and document the CWS Sphere Focal Point Project beneficiaries’ lessons learned and best practices based on their experiences.

The CWS P/A’s Sphere Focal Point Project (SFP) has been operating in Pakistan since shortly after the devastating earthquake of October 2005. The project aimed to give all relevant agencies the opportunity to build their awareness and practice in relation to Sphere standards, so that their work is representative of recognized best practice in humanitarian work. Over 600 training participants have benefitted from the Sphere Focal Point Project from 2005 to present.

The Sphere Project provided support, in close collaboration with HAP International, to the Nargis cyclone emergency response in Myanmar from July to September 2008.

The latest lessons paper by ALNAP and Provention provides a distillation of the learning from thirty years of humanitarian response to earthquakes. It concentrates on issues of particular relevance in earthquakes, such as communication breakdown due to the destruction of infrastructure, geographic concentration of the effects and the occurrence of aftershocks disrupting operations.