Working for quality humanitarian response in India

The response to the Sikkim earthquake allowed two Sphere Project Geneva office staff who happened to be on a visit to Sphere India in Delhi to witness first-hand the way the organization works – in particular its unified response strategy and inter-agency coordination role.

Sphere India, a member of the Sphere Project Board, is a national coalition of humanitarian organizations. Members include government and UN agencies, international and national non-governmental organizations and networks. It facilitates inter-agency coordination, training and capacity-building as well as collaborative advocacy.

South-East Asia is subject to recurring widespread natural disasters and the affected states make considerable efforts in disaster management. The visitors were thus able to learn about the inclusion of Sphere standards in disaster management guidelines both at national and regional levels, as well as about the challenges of implementing these guidelines.

Sphere India arranged for two days of meetings with representatives from various government agencies: the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Institute for Disaster Management. A visit was also paid to the Disaster Management Center (SDMC) of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Both NDMA and SDMC have developed guidelines on minimum standards for disaster response in India and South Asia, respectively. These guidelines have mainstreamed Sphere minimum standards and further contextualized the indicators, which is a significant achievement of the Sphere India strategy vis-à-vis the Indian government.

The next step will be to operationalize these guidelines. An inter-agency review conference will take place in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh on 11 October. The conference will review how minimum standards have been included in the governmental and non governmental response to the floods that hit the Northern Indian state last August. On this occasion, Sphere India will introduce a ‘minimum standards index’ – a tool to collectively report on the achievement of minimum standards.

In order to join forces more effectively in their advocacy efforts, the Sphere Project office and Sphere India are working on a Memorandum of Understanding. The aim is to strengthen collaboration, sharing of best practices and greater coordination between their respective strategies.