The Sphere Board members continue their commitment to Sphere and their support to building capacities and implementation at the ground. Here is a sample of some of the Sphere Board members activities during the period from November 2007 till April 2008. The activities were collected and categorised around trainings, translations and other activities.

  Browse the activities (HTML format).

See the activities by Country or by Organisation using Google Earth (install it for free).

The SEEP Network, a global association of NGOs active in microenterprise development, is coordinating an initiative to develop Standards for Economic Recovery after Crisis.  The Standards focus on strategies and interventions designed to promote enterprises, employment, and cash flow and asset management among affected businesses and households. These Standards follow the process and format of the Sphere handbook (The Sphere Project Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response), and have been developed with guidance and input from the Sphere Project. 

A three day Disaster Management training took place in Kuwait from the 1st to the 3rd of April 2008. The training had 16 participants from Kuwait and Qatar representing a wide spectrum of NGOs based in the Middle East and working overseas. The training was particularly focused on the International Humanitarian Standards in delivering relief aid and included an introduction to the Sphere Minimum Standards. The lead trainer was Moustafa Osman. 

The overall sales figures provided by Oxfam Publishing and Al Shorouk Publishing for the period of May 2005 – April 2007 show that promotion of Sphere materials, particularly the Handbook in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, has been successful, with a 42% increase in the value of sales between 2005-6 and 2006-7.

Sales of all Sphere available materials (handbook, DVD, training pack) in 6 languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian) in GBP were:

Jane Cocking, Linda Poteat Sphere Board members and John Damerell, Sphere Project Manager during the launch of the low cost edition of the handbook.

The Sphere Project signed a Memorandum of Agreement with 'Books for Change' in India to print a low cost, English language edition of "The Sphere handbook, 2004 edition.  The handbook will be produced in India and will be available for 210 Indian Rupees* in the following countries only: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives (Sales Territories). 

 

 

You can watch here our Sphere Video, an introduction to humanitarian challenges. This film outlines some of the key issues of humanitarianism that confront and challenge those who are committed to alleviating the suffering of populations affected by disaster. It is primarily intended for the new aid worker and can help begin their orientation to disaster response work. It may be useful to staff of international and national NGOs, UN agencies, national disaster response teams and Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, and in training and academic settings.

The Sphere Office would like to share with Sphere users a process that is being used by CARE as an efficient tool for auditing/reviewing project compliance to the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.  

As the community of Sphere users is growing all over the world, with increased accumulated knowledge about its implementation in practice, the Sphere office is realising the need to further support the dissemination of this experience and knowledge about Sphere.