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.