Sphere Project
Sphere Project
It's great to have the opportunity, in this issue of Field Exchange, to bring to your attention an NGO endeavour aiming to improve the quality of emergency relief.
Project Background
The Sphere Project is a collaborative exercises, involving NGOs, donors governments, UN agencies and academics. It is being co-ordinated by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) and InterAction, under the management of Susan Purdin based in Geneva.
The aims of the project are:- to improve the quality of assistance provided to people affected by disasters (whether natural of man-made); and to improve the accountability of agencies to their beneficiaries, their membership and their donors.
A set of minimum standards are being developed in core areas of humanitarian response:- water and sanitation, shelter and site selection, medical services, food security and nutrition. These standards will be developed under a framework of a set of rights - drawn from existing law, conventions and practice - relevant to all with a legitimate claim for assistance by the humanitarian community in disaster situations. These basic rights will be highlighted by the project in a humanitarian charter.
The project began in July, and should be completed by June 1998. The standards will be finalised by April with a first draft due in two months.
Minimum Standards for Nutrition
For these standards to have any relevance and potential future application, it is vital that the experience and thinking of those who have worked in emergencies is harnessed. To this end, I'm putting an e-mail correspondence list together, so that people can comment on drafts or suggest good case-study material to highlight best practice. If you would like to be involved, then please get in touch with me and I'll add you to the list (an alternative to e-mails links can be the fax).
For anyone interested in the standards in food security, please contact the Sector Manager, Harlan Hale:. Tel: (1) 404 38-3328 Fax: 404 378-3047, E-mail: hvhale@mindspring.com.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Lola Gostelow, Sector Manager, Nutrition
Tel: (44) 0171 703-5400 Fax: 0171 793-7626 E-mail: l.gostelow@scfuk.org.uk
More like this
FEX: Inter-Agency Standing Committee endorses Sphere
In July 1997, the Sphere Project was launched by a group of humanitarian agencies. This project sought to develop a set of universal minimum standards in core areas of...
FEX: Workshop on the Integration of Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM)
Date: April 28-April 30, 2008 The Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Project is hosting a Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) international...
FEX: Assessing the Nutritional Vulnerability of Older People in Developing Countries: a Symposium
Help Age International and the Human Nutrition Unit of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are holding a symposium on the 23rd and 24th of September 1997 which...
FEX: Sphere Project celebrates 10th anniversary
The Sphere Project celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2007. To mark the occasion, a special report has been published, '10 years of Sphere in Action, enhancing the quality and...
FEX: The application of minimum standards during crisis - A practitioner ’s perspective, southern Sudan 1998/9
By Stephanie Maxwell Stephanie Maxwell worked as the medical co-ordinator for Medicines Sans Frontiers Holland (MSFH) between May '97 and March '99, and as programme manager...
FEX: SWP-CPN Pilot Study on Humanitarian Assistance
In recent years the nature of emergencies have changed so that the vast majority of humanitarian crises are now acknowledged to be conflict related. These emergencies are often...
FEX: New course
Evaluation of Health Programmes in Complex Emergencies The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine will be running a course on 'Evaluation of Health Programmes in Complex...
FEX: Managing Interventions in Complex Emergencies A Course for Managers of Refugee and Relief Operations
The Feinstein International Famine Centre at Tufts University is holding a two week intensive course for humanitarian program managers focusing on nutrition, public health and...
FEX: New Community Nutrition CD-ROM from TALC
Community Nutrition is a new CDROM containing nutrition materials for health care workers in resourcepoor areas. The CD-ROM was produced by TALC with financial support from...
en-net: Nutritionist, Tahoua, Niger, with Concern Worldwide
Reference:DK/NR/NUT Country:Niger Job Title:Nutritionist Contract Grade: B Contract Length: 12 months Date Needed By: ASAP New Post or Replacement: Replacement Accompanied /...
en-net: Emergency Nutrition Manager - Surge
Emergency Nutrition Manager Surge Team Working with the world's poorest people to transform their lives, Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation...
en-net: Emergency Programme Manager – Nutrition, Surge Team, Concern Worldwide
Job Title: Emergency Programme Manager - Nutrition, Surge Team Reports to: Head of Emergency Operations overall and between deployments, and Country Director/Programme...
en-net: ERT - Emergency Nutrition Manager
Working with the world's poorest people to transform their lives. Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in...
FEX: Humanitarian Accountability Report
The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP International) has launched the 2008 Humanitarian Accountability Report (May 2009). The 2008 report opens with an overview of...
FEX: Can Sphere be Used in Complex Emergencies?
Summary of published paper1 A U.S Airborne Infantry soldier patrols along Kosovo's border with Macedonia The Sphere Project (consisting of both the Humanitarian Charter and...
FEX: The Relief and Rehabilitation Network
The Relief and Rehabilitation Network (RRN), based at the Overseas Development Institute in London, was conceived in 1992 and launched in 1994 to offer relevant, practical...
FEX: Small Scale Fortification Network!
The idea for an international network on the subject of small scale food fortification sprang from the Micronutrient Initiative meeting recently held in Canada. Local NGOs...
Resource: IFE Module 1 - ARCHIVE
Note: This module has now been updated to Module 1, v2.1, 2010. Module 1. Infant feeding in emergencies. For emergency relief staff. Orientation and reference. Module 1 was...
FEX: New Sphere Standards for Food Security, Nutrition and Food Aid
Summary of published paper1 Selling rice in Bo Market, Sierra Leone. An article in Disasters examines the recent revision of the Sphere Minimum Standards in disaster response...
en-net: Vacancy: ERT - Emergency Nutrition Manager, Concern Worldwide
Job Title: ERT (emegency response team) - Emergency Nutrition Manager Reports to: Head of the Emergency Unit Relevant Emergency or Country Director when on deployment Liaising...
Reference this page
Lola Gostelow (). Sphere Project. Field Exchange 3, January 1998. p19. www.ennonline.net/fex/3/sphere
(ENN_3304)