In March of 2008, the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) presented their graduate students with an intensive two-day short course on the Sphere approach and its application in disaster assessment and response. The course included components from the InterWorks resource of training materials available from the Sphere website as well as a condensed overview and hands-on illustrations of the technical standards and indicators.

As an educational institution, MIIS is widely recognized as one of the most academically prestigious language and international policy studies schools in the country. With its four graduate schools, multiple research centers and numerous special programs, the Monterey Institute of International Studies has begun the new millennium with a strategic and innovative focus on hands on educational development. This focus is exemplified by the Humanitarian Assistance Course offered this spring. The course is comprised of students with a wide range of talents and diverse backgrounds, ranging from MBA students focusing in social entrepreneurship to development studies students specializing in water and sanitation.

The course provided an overview of the Sphere approach as well as the structure and philosophy of the Sphere book. Sessions were dedicated to the Rights-based approach and the key elements of international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law as they guide the Sphere humanitarian charter. The students were then led through the development of the realization of key rights into measurable reality via an exploration of the standards and indicators. Finally, many of the indicators were illustrated in direct physical ways to ensure that participants could actually visualize the meaning of the indicators.

Using the Salt Island exercise prepared by InterWorks, graduate students played the roles of refugees, administrators, NGOs, Donors and UN agencies all working to meet immediate human needs in an unclear and changing political situation. The participants found the interactive approach to be engaging and useful in illustrating some of the key concerns in organizing international humanitarian assistance in an effective way.

Following MIIS’ innovative educational model, MIIS plans to implement a new curriculum and forge new alliances in the humanitarian community through the creation of a humanitarian assistance track. The curriculum will encompass relevant skills, theories and methodologies in order to prepare students to become leaders in the humanitarian field. Grounded in globally accepted frameworks, the Sphere project will be an essential component to the humanitarian assistance curriculum. This approach will incorporate the Sphere project standards and guidelines, and will be founded on the principles presented in the Sphere Humanitarian Charter.

MIIS students preparing for the “Salt Island” sphere training table-top simulation.

Some of the MIIS students and staff attending the Sphere training at the MIIS campus in Monterey California.

Provided by: James Good, Email: