You can watch here our Sphere Video, an introduction to humanitarian challenges. This film outlines some of the key issues of humanitarianism that confront and challenge those who are committed to alleviating the suffering of populations affected by disaster. It is primarily intended for the new aid worker and can help begin their orientation to disaster response work. It may be useful to staff of international and national NGOs, UN agencies, national disaster response teams and Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, and in training and academic settings.
As the community of Sphere users is growing all over the world, with increased accumulated knowledge about its implementation in practice, the Sphere office is realising the need to further support the dissemination of this experience and knowledge about Sphere.
MercyCorps is kindly managing the translation and printing process of the new version of the Sphere handbook in Urdu. The translation is coordinated by Mr. Khaleel Tetlay, Director of Programs, Mercy Corps Field Office, Quetta/Pakistan.
The Sphere handbook as well as a pocket size version are now available in Bahasa. They can be requested from:
Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (MPBI) King Plaza Building, Pasar Baru, Jl. Pintu Air V, No 53, Jakarta 10710, Indonesia. Tel. 021-3854943, Fax. 021-3854941.
In August 2005 the Humanitarian Response Review (HRR), commissioned by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), Jan Egeland, was published. One of the recommendations was that a ‘benchmarking’ system be established to enable better monitoring and measurement of the effectiveness of disaster response. The United Kingdom aid department, Department for International Development (DFID), led some work to explore further what such a benchmarking system might look like. The clear link with the Sphere standards meant that the Sphere Project Manager was invited to participate in a ‘virtual’ advisory group formed to inform DFID’s work.
