The purpose of this 2-days “Learning Activity” is to share and witness concrete practice-based experiences about the challenges, the successes, the joys and the sorrows of humanitarian work, e .g. the complexities of transforming humanitarian principles into action; the experience of working towards agreed quality standards and indicators, while implementing the principles laid out in the Code of Conduct. In other words: this Activity is about learning and sharing our experience and knowledge about using the Sphere handbook in our day to day humanitarian practice.

What are the expected outcomes of this Activity?
The Activity is designed to achieve the following three concrete outcomes: 1) Participants of the Activity will take with them a wealth of “how to” knowledge that is practical for their day to day work; 2) People attending the Activity will deepen their understanding that using the Sphere Handbook is easy, relevant to their day to day work, and an important tool that helps them move towards achieving quality and accountability; and 3) A useful record of experiences will be left that can be shared with other people not present in the Activity.

What is the “spirit” that should guide the Learning Activity?
Participants will be guided through an open, stimulating and inspiring process that will allow them to reflect on their actual day to day practical work using the Sphere Humanitarian Charter, Minimum Standards, Key Indicators, and Guidance Notes. Through the tools suggested in these guidelines (e.g. Storytelling, peer assist, knowledge harvesting, etc.) participants will create a safe space that will allow them to reflect and make vital discoveries about the quality and Accountability of their own work, learn from others, and identify concrete actions that can help them improve quality and accountability.

Aside from learning, what other purposes can the Activity fulfil?
Because this is a gathering of humanitarians, the Learning Activity should also become an exciting opportunity to network and get to know people who share similar objectives and challenges. A Learning Activity is a safe space that allows peers to meet and exchange, collaborate, learn from each other, and take away from it a deep sense of belonging to a wider community of practice working towards similar humanitarian goals. If the Activity is successful, participants will come out of it empowered, with a renewed sense of purpose, and with a “bag” full of concrete alternatives to solve their day to day humanitarian challenges.

Download the full activity guidelines from here. Those Guidelines are still in the field testing phase. Give us your input by adding comments to this article.