Sphere translation guidelines

See Copyright Information

Guidelines for Translations and Reproductions of the
Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
and Sphere Training Material

General Requirements

First and foremost, please inform the Sphere Project Office of the translation you are planning to carry out; this will allow for the information to be shared more widely and also for the Office to provide the necessary support where required.

1. The Sphere Handbook that is to be translated is the 2004 edition. The training materials that are to be translated are those contained in the 2004 Sphere Training Pack.

2. Identify and use a professional translator, preferably someone that is familiar with humanitarian work.

3. Get a group of mother-tongue “humanitarians” from different agencies working in the country/language to meet in order to agree on terminology, key terms and concepts and on the translation process. (Ideally, from this meeting the group could propose/appoint a contact person for the translator to be in contact with during the whole process, see Useful Practices.)

Please remember to adapt the back cover and the copyright page (usually either the inside of the front cover or the first page) to reflect both the source of the new document and the authorship of the original. The following points in particular need to be considered:

5. The authorship of the Sphere Project must be acknowledged. Please make sure that inside the publication (on the copyright page) a note is made to acknowledge the original publication, using the following format:

“This <language> edition of <title> is published by <publisher> of <address> in 20xx. This is a translation from the <original language> edition of <title>, first published in 20xx under the ISBN <insert original ISBN>”.

Indication of contact details of the Sphere Office is recommended.

6. It is essential that a disclaimer stating that “This handbook was independently translated by the following agencies…” is included inside the front cover of the document. Please note however that no institutional logos should be inserted.

7. Contact details of the producer and distributor of the new publication should be included.

8. The ISBN and bar code of the Sphere Handbook in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian must be removed from the cover of the new publication.

The ISBN and bar code are unique to each language and the publisher; you can apply for an ISBN from your local ISBN agency (for information see http://www.isbn-international.org/en/agencies.html).

Where there is no ISBN issuing agency you can either use one issued for a participating agency in another country. (for example, 92 is the ISBN prefix used by international agencies and UN organizations), or simply not include an an ISBN.

9. The translation must be made available to all actors in the humanitarian assistance community (i.e. sharing) regardless of who undertakes the work.

10. No agency, collections of agencies or individuals realize any financial gain from the translated text.

11. The organization(s) in charge of the translation will send a final copy to the Sphere Office by e-mail (info@sphereproject.org) and printed hardcopy (P.O. Box 372, 1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland). A final copy must also be provided to Oxfam Publishing (c/o BEBC Distribution, P.O. Box 1496, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset BH12 3YD, UK).

Note: These Guidelines do not cover actual production and publishing issues, as the variations from country to country are so immense. If you want to discuss this and receive assistance in organizing your undertaking, please call the Sphere office ( 41-22-730.4501 or e-mail at info@sphereproject.org)

Key terms and concepts: as described in point 3, get consensus on key terminology and concepts OR use an already approved glossary (i.e. UNHCR, UNICEF, etc) and make clear to your translator this is the terminology to be used.

Communication channel: it is essential to effectively communicate with your translator, especially at the beginning of the process. This would be responsibility of the contact person, ideally: a native speaker with excellent writing skills, working for an agency involved in disaster response. This person would be willing to spend some quality time reviewing first few pages of the translation and to be in regular contact with the translator.

Proofreading: If your resources permit, hire a proofreader to review the whole translation (make sure s(he) knows about the key terms and concepts your group has already agreed upon) for grammar, punctuation, proper page order, etc. If resources are limited, the contact person could do this review.

Training materials: It is frequently useful to translate the Sphere training materials along with the handbook. The training materials provide very practical presentations and case studies on how to use the handbook in disaster response preparation and operations.
As with the handbook text, the training materials are available on the website (www.sphereproject.org) in English, French and Spanish. The same guidelines listed above apply to these materials.