In the bustling city of Bangkok in early December, Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A) hosted a successful regional monitoring and evaluation Sphere training with 31 participants representing nine countries.

CWS-P/A is well known for its trainings in Pakistan ranging from disaster response to capacity building. As a landmark event, CWS-P/A conducted a workshop entitled, ‘Monitoring and Evaluation with a Particular Emphasis on Sphere Minimum Standards.’

In reflecting on the workshop, participant Maira Zahur, a senior project officer for CWS-P/A explains,” Three years ago I attended a Sphere training....but with this course I have learned about monitoring, so when I am involved in a disaster response and recovery or on a development project, I can put into practice what I have learned.” She adds, since I will be more involved in monitoring and evaluation in the future this will be a useful tool for me in my work"

The goal of this training is to strengthen the capacity of humanitarian relief workers to increase their efficiency and effectiveness in addressing the areas of the greatest needs in the humanitarian context by using Sphere Minimum Standards as one of the quality and accountability tools.

As the week progressed, many of the participants commented on the valuable learning experience of the Sphere training which was consistent with the objectives of the workshop equip field practitioners with the theory, tools and practice for implementation of monitoring and evaluation in their future programs.

"I am new to monitoring and evaluation, explains Mirna Mutiara, Project development officer, CWS Indonesia, and I found this topic challenging for me, especially from the technical aspect, she adds. For programme development I need to know a bit about every sector, so this training has helped me understand the terminology and now I feel 10 steps ahead in what I can in my programme planning and reporting work!"

Among the participants, were also donor agencies who found the training to be effective in gaining a greater understanding of the programmes in which their agencies support. "As a donor agency, I have understood Sphere at a distant 10,000 foot level, so to get more involved at technical level will help me to better understand the reports we receive from our partner agencies," explains Nagulan Nesiah of Episcopal Relief and Development.

The enthusiasm and experience of the consultant facilitator, Annie Lloyd, kept the momentum and the active interactive learning throughout the five days of training.  “The trainer used interactive teaching methods to keep participants engaged and interested throughout the five day course, which illustrates the effectiveness of this approach describes Marieke Roelfsema, Programme Office for UNICEF Indonesia. She adds, “it's nice to be in an environment where you have the time to discuss with others on such topics when in day to day work you do not time for such reflection" I enjoyed the methods and group exercises used by the trainer - it really stimulates creativity and thinking 'outside the box' -- this made the training enjoyable and fun!”

From team work projects to understand the difference between indicators and standards and case studies to developing action plans, as well as a panel discussion of experts from the NGO community and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, at the culmination of the training, participants concurred that their horizons on monitoring and evaluation were broadened, and made relevant to their valuable humanitarian work.

The participants and organizers of the ‘Monitoring and Evaluation with a Particular Emphasis on Sphere Minimum Standards’ gather in Bangkok for the first time regional training organized by CWS-P/A.

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What did participants say about the training:

"My expertise is health and nutrition, but through this training I can see a new perspective on how to use monitoring and evaluation and to link my previous knowledge with Sphere as a reference point.” notes Julia Suryantan, M&E coordinator for CWS Indonesia.
 

Syed Concern Pakistan "I have never experienced doing assessment in emergencies, so it was good we had the experience in a group setting' This is just not another set of standards - there is real significance in linking with the exposure with people from other countries and great value in having the training in Bangkok in this venue. The films we watched showed the seriousness and emotional value behind these humanitarian crises and why we need Sphere." Now I can go back and explain how the Sphere standards are workable"

"We had the Sphere code of conduct on the wall, but never implemented the indicators or standards, and I think this training will help our organisation to implement the Sphere standards in emergency relief. Our development activities will be helped as well especially with M&E. We can review our existing M&E systems in using the Sphere standards in M&E” It was a great learning experience - learning from the facilitator and with the exercises and activities it made the learning easy and interesting. "Ashraf Mall, LSRDA