Information Sheet

Sixteenth Local Course on
The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response

The Sixteenth Local Course on Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response was conducted by the Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI), Ahmedabad, on August 3, 2002 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. DMI organised this Local Course especially for it's co-ordinators and field workers to ensure proper implementation of minimum standards under various programmes run by DMI. Its main purpose was to provide an opportunity for co-ordinators and field workers, both, to understand the Sphere Project, its standards, and their use for DMI.

Based on the (a) three National Courses on the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response held at Goa on June 21-23, 2001; Kolkata on October 3-6, 2001; and Guwahati on June 8-10, 2002 and (b) Sphere Handbook, the course material was developed in Gujarati and internally reviewed in order to ensure course relevance to participants. Emphasis on Gujarat and on DMI's work was increased. The material was localised. The training programme covered the Humanitarian Charter, Minimum Standards, Project Cycle and Tools for Working within the Project Cycle, Disaster Preparedness, and discussed a DVD on Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.

The one-day course introduced, examined and demonstrated the use of Sphere Project on a wide range of disasters, including floods, riots, earthquakes, drought and cyclones keeping in mind disaster situation in Gujarat, India. A group exercise on use of Sphere Project in project cycle revealed important lessons for the participants, in which five important sectors of the Sphere Project-water supply and sanitation related to Bhuj Reconstruction; nutrition; food aid related to drought assessment; shelter and site planning related to riots; and health service-were covered. Efforts were made by the participants to develop standards and indicators for DMI's Livelihood Relief Fund (LRF) based on the Sphere Standards.

"Though Sphere Project doesn't cover livelihood issues, based on the universal framework provided by the Sphere Project it is possible for us to develop standards and indicators for livelihood security," said Mr. Niraj Trivedi of LRF.

An essential link between DMI's relief and response work with Sphere Project was developed from time to time with special inputs given by Mr. Mihir R. Bhatt, Honorary Director, Disaster Mitigation Institute, Ahmedabad. He also linked the Red Cross Code of Conduct with effective implementation of Minimum Standards at grass roots level, with special reference to humanitarian work taking place in India. "In the end, all these standards should help DMI reach the poor among the victims better," said Mr. Bhatt.

"Implementation of some of the Minimum Standards in our disaster relief and response work have not only improved our performance to an extent but also raised satisfaction level of beneficiaries," said Mr. Hasmukh Sadhu of DMI who is working with the slum dwellers who are left out from the process of rebuilding Bhuj under Bhuj Reconstruction Project.

Mr. Manoj. K, Programme Officer, Action Aid (India) chaired the Closing Ceremony, who emphasised the need for this type of training programmes for various actors involved in Humanitarian Assistance, especially field teams and Government officials. He also appealed the participants to incorporate Red Cross Code of Conducts along with Sphere Project. Finally he presented participants with the certificates. He said, "There is a need for the Government sector to come forward and work together in order to improve the quality of relief".

The Local Course successfully met it's objectives with active involvement of participants from field and office, which provided platform to share, learn, and reflect on common understanding on the sphere Project and its use.

Perhaps for the first time ways are found to internalise Sphere Standards across a single agency/organisation so as to enhance agency/ organisation performance.

Similarly, the training takes the global standards far beyond the NGO leadership to the field workers.

"Without such cycles at this level networking and learning at field level will remain an anticipated outcome only," said Deepesh Sinha, who is working on contextualising Sphere Standards at DMI.

This cycle will further improve DMI team's performance in newly initiated food security, earthquake reconstruction and post-conflict reconstruction work in Gujarat.