You will find here short articles/stories written by community members about their own experience from implementation of Sphere in many different contexts and situations. You will find a lot of hints, insights, practical ideas about how to face challenges of Sphere compliance and Sphere implementation in practice.
You can also write your own article/story and send us your own experience. You have first to login and select "Send Sphere article" from the user menu on the left hand side of your screen. Your article/story will be first reviewed before it is published. Once published, any community member can then comment on it.
Read below the latest articles...
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Food Security, Nutrition and Food Aid issues
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Friday, 16 December 2005 |
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Refugees have been entering Thailand since 1984 at a rate of approximately 7,000 per year. By early 2000 there were approximately 125,000 refugees in eleven refugee camps spread north and south along the Burma/Thailand border. Food and other relief supplies are provided to the refugees by the five agencies of the Burmese Border Consortium (BBC), while a variety of medical agencies provide health and medical care. The BBC works through refugee committees and under the umbrella of the Committee for Co-ordination of Services to Displaced Persons in Thailand (CCSDPT). The present chair of the CCSDPT is from BBC. BBC programming is carried out with the authorisation and approval of the Thai Ministry of the Interior.  Comment this article | Views: 8147
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Training
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Friday, 16 December 2005 |
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The 1990s was a decade of turmoil in Albania. Anarchy followed the fall of communism in 1992, while the collapse of pyramid savings schemes in 1997 precipitated a major social and economic crisis. Civil strife spread across the country after the assassination of a leading opposition political figure in 1998 and during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Albania gained the world's attention as the host country for 450,000 refugees. Comment this article | Views: 6589 |
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Sustainability of commitment to Sphere
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
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El Salvador is a small country yet has 1,000 registered NGOs and a proliferation of others. Thirteen disaster response NGOs have agreed to work together to institutionalise Sphere through a common framework and common funding. They help each other by bringing different resources according to their capacity – such as photocopying, technical assistance, and some bring money.
Over the year and a half working together as a group, they realise that progress can be slow, but have started to see the benefits of this approach. Coordination in the field has been strengthened, strategic alliances have been created and members work together on specific projects. The group is committed to collective decision-making, rotating roles so that all are able to participate. They are also concerned to ensure accountability and transparency, creating, for example, a single format for financial reporting. A challenge however is that there are unequal levels of commitment.
Comment this article | Views: 5361 |
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Sustainability of commitment to Sphere
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
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Having been working at the community level, CRS realised no single organisation can make change happen – instead a strategy working at different levels and over an extended period of time was needed. CARE, CRS, World Vision and others recognised that to make Sphere sustainable they would need to incorporate its principles through educating children and young people on risk management. Hence they are working to include risk management in the curriculum of schools and in university (in engineering and medical degrees). In 2005, the first handbook for the 1st – 6th grades in primary school will be ready.
Comment this article | Views: 5023 |
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Making Sphere relevant at Community level
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
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A door-to-door ‘salesman’ went from place to place with a box that he offered at each door. The box was Sphere. Every time, the person who opened the door asked "what can I use it for?" Each time the door was slammed in his face because the salesman forgot to say that it has three elements.
In Central America, the ‘salesman’ got to a local centre where the people forced him to open it and he realised that to sell it, people had to be able to look at its various parts. They are:
1) Process of Sphere: national groups need to reach consensus on how they are going to work together. Sphere as a name should be subordinate to country priorities – whether risk management, education, peace or whatever. 2) Using the Handbook 3) Commitment to the humanitarian values of the Humanitarian Charter.
The ‘salesman’ realised that to be relevant, each ‘customer’ has to be able to distinguish between the three parts, in order to see which applies to them in their own context.
Comment this article | Views: 5643 |
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Making Sphere relevant at Community level
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
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Oxfam has found that applying the minimum standards around NFI can be difficult. What is meant by a ‘family unit’ is often not explained clearly by providers. This proved a challenge in Congo Brazzaville and DRC where families are polygamous. Since each wife had her own cooking utensils and does not share these with the others, CRS made the decision that a second or third wife each constitutes a different household, and the assistance was expanded accordingly.
Comment this article | Views: 6216 |
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Making Sphere relevant at Community level
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
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In a resettlment programme for Angolan refugees in southern DRC, Oxfam provided materials for the refugees to build their own houses. It was also felt to be important to integrate this with the local villages. The houses the refugees actually built were tiny, because this was what they were used to. Since the houses were smaller than Sphere minimum standards, the donor complained – the standards hadn’t been achieved. Oxfam explained that they had provided sufficient materials but people hadn’t wanted to build in that way. In other words, they had fulfilled another Sphere requirement – that the context and wishes of the community should be taken into account.
Comment this article | Views: 4342 |
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Making Sphere accessible to local communities
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Friday, 02 December 2005 |
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Save the Children is adapting Sphere for children in several countries in South America. By introducing it into songs, games etc, children have a new way to understand what Sphere is about. Save the Children have taken a similar approach to make the Humanitarian Charter more accessible to adults. Working with five other agencies, they have also contributed to establishing indicators for education. SC also believes there is a need to go into more depth [with Sphere] in primary and secondary education. As such, the organisation provides a model for coordination, which is important since governments and others need to be further integrated into efforts to promote Sphere in South America.
Comment this article | Views: 4593 |
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