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