Information Sheet

Eighth National Course on
The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response

The Eighth National Course on Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response was conducted by the Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI), Ahmedabad, and Oxfam (India) Trust on June 8-10, 2002 in Guwahati, Assam. Oxfam (India) Trust and DMI brought this National Course to Northeast India, for the first time, to further improve the capacity of humanitarian response for millions of people affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts. Its main purpose was to provide an opportunity for Government and Non Government professionals from India, Nepal and Bangladesh to understand the Sphere Project, its standards, and their use.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Dr. Bhumidhar Barman, Honorable Health Minister of Assam; Mr. C.K. Das, Principal Secretary of Revenue; Dr. Kalyani Das, Director of Health Services of Assam; Dr. Ariz Ahmed, Director of Training, Assam Administrative Staff College and Mr. Savio Carvalho, Oxfam Project Manager of West India.

Shri C.K. Das, Principle Secretary of Revenue, Government of Assam said, "The links between poverty and vulnerability of communities in the North East of India are well known. We must work to build community capacity through such courses."



The National Course introduced, examined and demonstrated the Sphere Project on a wide range of disasters, including floods, riots, earthquakes, drought and cyclones. The Sphere Project addresses minimum standards pertaining to water supply and sanitation, nutrition, food aid, shelter and site planning, and health service.

Professor Vinod Sharma, National Center for Disaster Management, New Delhi, presented to course participants a range of new initiatives taking place in India to make relief response more and more standardized and unified.

"Such minimum standards have regional relevance. Many countries in the South Asian region can share such standards," said Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Kafley of the Nepal Red Cross Society.

The National Course successfully met the goal of attracting a wide range of participants. Professionals, administrators, academics and activists from nine states in India and delegates from Bangladesh, Nepal, and New Zealand participated in this National Course. Present at the course were eight members of international NGOs/donor, five members of regional NGOs, two academics, six government officials and eight CBOs (Community Based Organizations). The participants' age ranged from 25-50+. Furthermore, these people consisted of disaster managers and individuals with field experience-who are designing, implementing and evaluating humanitarian projects-and members of national governments, donors and civil society. Once again the National Course attracted a diverse group of individuals to better promote in classroom and outside classroom learning.

Representatives from international and national agencies active in disaster response in and around India, including DMI, Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief (EFICOR), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), Nepal and Indian Red Cross Society, Oxfam Great Britain, National Fire Academy, Save the Children and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) shared their past and current experiences of trying to achieve minimum standards in disaster response in India. Mrs. Mamta Varma, advisor to USAID, New Delhi, said, "Vulnerability of the poor in the North-East India must be reduced and their capacity to prepare for disasters must be built. Over the years the poor are more vulnerable to a wider range of hazards."

Ms. Girija Devi of UNICEF added, "In such vulnerability reduction efforts women and children must be in the center. Experience shows that more and more women are bypassed during disaster response."

The participants identified the most common difficulties in disaster response in the North-East India, including the lack of NGO-GO and NGO-NGO coordination, chaotic competition in accessing resources from national and international sources, no known ways of building rapid and effective working partnerships, and resource leakages. Discussions were held on promoting strategic initiatives through networks of knowledge-based institutions and lessons learning exercise.



Savio Carvalho said that, "There is no substitute to disaster preparedness in order to reduce vulnerability of men and women from poor communities. There is a need for government, NGO and donor in the North East to work together in order to improve the quality of relief as per Sphere Project."

Honorable Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Panchayati Raj, Government of Assam, Dr. Bhumidhar Barman said, "Urban vulnerability in the North East is increasing. Finding ways to promote safety-physical and social-are most required."

Dr. Ariz Ahmed, Director of the Assam Administrative Staff College, the host, emphasized the need to build institutional partnerships in building administrative capacity to move beyond relief to community preparedness.

Topics included The Humanitarian Charter, Values and Principles, Roles and Responsibilities in the Humanitarian Complex, New Initiatives in Disaster Management in India, NGO-GO Coordination in Sphere, The Sphere Project Cycle and Tools for Working within the Project Cycle, Dealing with Context, Disaster Preparedness, Humanitarian Code of Conduct (Sexual Violence), Using Sphere in Assessments and Analysis and a DVD on Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.

Material from the Second and Third National Course, also on the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, was reviewed and modified to improve language, reduce repetition of concepts and ensure course relevance to participants. The Sphere Project material was updated from 2001. Participants were asked to furnish their own Sphere Project Handbook. A course packet consisting of 86 + pages were handed out prior to inauguration of the course. Hard copies of presentations, participants contact list, participants profile summaries and applicable DMI material were made available throughout the course.



Faculty of the National Course incorporated experience-based participant presentations in their session, which included Mr. Vijender Singh's group experience in logistics management, Dr. Achyut Chandra Balshya's group experience in the Assam regional floods and Neil Robert Gillon's group analysis of the KuKi-Naga Conflict. Teaching techniques included a "Trust Walk", group exercises and discussions, slide presentations, and a mock disaster situation that only participants had the opportunity to address and respond.

The Closing ceremony was attended by Mr. M.K. Barooah, Commissioner & Secretary from the Government of Assam, Dr. Alok Parti, Principal Secretary of Health, Dr. Ariz Ahmed and Mr. Savio Carvalho.

When concluding the course, Mihir Bhatt, Honorary Director of the Disaster Mitigations Institute said, "The North East region of India deserves far more inputs in disaster mitigation and DMI is prepared to join such efforts."