- Update on the future of Sphere (October 2004)

- Update on the future of Sphere (June 2004)

Final report of the consultation process on the future of Sphere
(You will need Acrobat Reader)

The meeting reports of four consultations were received by the Sphere Project Office after the overall report had been finalised. For transparency, the individual meeting reports can be viewed in full in the present addendum in their original languages.

Given the short timescale, the approach was low key but aiming to reach as many people with as wide a geographical spread as possible. Methods included:

1. Inter-Agency Meetings,hosted by an interested agency, following the format proposed in the Organizers' Guidelines and Facilitators’ Guidelines. Consultations have taken place in the following kind of settings:

meetings facilitated for agencies at a national level, or working in one part of a country
regional meetings
during meetings that were already taking place, by requesting time (up to a day) in the agenda

2. Community based consultations with disaster-affected populations where this is appropriate. These consultations will be led by organizations who already have a good knowledge of the community, and have worked with them on Sphere before.

3. Semi-structured interviews by telephone or face to face, with key people who have had a close involvement with Sphere. ‘Key people’ were chosen on the basis that they fit one or more of the following criteria: key involvement in creation or development of Sphere; known to hold strong and well-informed views on Sphere; have particular experience of using Sphere at field level.

4. Web based discussions in French, Spanish and English, in collaboration with Aid Workers Network (AWN):
a. Consultations in response to articles sent out via the AWN and Sphere listserves
b. Interactive web page hosted by AWN, linked to the Sphere website, to complement the above
c. Feedback on draft of results of consultations posted on the Sphere website

Calendar

The table below shows consultation meetings that took place in 2004:

* The meetings reports could not be reflected in the consultation report. Their conclusions were presented to the Sphere Management Committee orally. For transparency, the individual meeting reports can be viewed in full in the present addendum in their original languages.