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Information Sheet The Sphere Project: Handbook Revision Shelter and Site Planning Feedback Meeting The Sphere Project
is an international inter-agency collaboration that aims to improve
the quality of assistance to victims, and enhance the accountability
of humanitarian response agencies to its beneficiaries, members
and donors. Disaster Mitigation Institute's (DMI's) association
with Sphere can be traced back to its initial 1998 alliance as one
of the 14 pilot agencies for the project. DMI complemented its efforts
to promote and critically use the Sphere handbook through many activities
including its national courses, local capacity building cycles,
in-house publications and material for training as well as local
meetings to deliberate on the use of the charter and the standards
in India and South-Asia. In furtherance to this 'Sphere in India
Campaign' of DMI, in partnership with the support of Catholic Relief
Services (CRS), USA, a day-long 'feedback meeting,' to inform the
revision of the Shelter and Site Planning Chapter of the Sphere
handbook was organised on September 18, 2002, in Ahmedabad. Invitations
were extended to 125 professionals, who were trained in Sphere and
had the experience of using these standards in response to their
field interventions in the country. In other words, those who had
made attempts to reduce the "knowing-doing gap" of Sphere in India
were invited. A total of 30 professionals from 18 local, national
and international voluntary agencies, donors and the government
participated in the consultation. These included United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), International Federation for Red Cross
and Red Crescent Society (IFRC), National Centre for Disaster Management
(NCDM), Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Developing Initiatives
for Social Human Action (DISHA) Oxfam-GB, Concern Worldwide, British
Red Cross, Emergency Food Security Network (EFSN), Sadvichar Parivar,
Discipleship Centre, Hind Swaraj Mandal, Caritas India, Save the
Children (SCF), CRS and DMI. Critical views and
insights expressed by the participants, in relation to issues that
plague the application of Sphere's shelter, spiralled around the
core areas of conceptualisation, institutionalisation and operationalisation
of the standards in the Indian context. Critical views were balanced
with a range of constructive suggestions to address the same at
the policy and operational level. First, it was proposed that serious
consideration to the dimensions of time and timing for planning,
executing and evaluating different types of disasters and different
phases within them, receive special attention in the revised document.
Second, the socio-psycho implications of shelter for disaster response
and recovery and the need for standards to acknowledge and commit
to vulnerability reduction were also stressed. Third, informing
the beneficiary community of their rights expressed in these standards,
formally acknowledging the government as a main stakeholder in humanitarian
action and the need to have both minimum and maximum standards for
organisations to adopt in relation to their capacity and the needs
of the field were popularly expressed. Fourth, recommendations were
also made to alter the presentation of the handbook with, one generic
rather than specific chapters' on the assessment and analysis for
different sectors and presentation of information in the form of
checklists at the end of each chapter with illustrations to enhance
understanding. Fifth, suggestions were made to bring out a second
volume of the handbook detailing the practice of standards, through
a case study method and a supplementary publication compiling global
best practices in shelter that comply to Sphere's shelter standards.
Sixth, use of the internet as a means for exchange and developing
of experiences, ideas and data in relation to shelter standards,
along with creative utilisation of the Sphere standards for evaluating
the performance of organisations in past humanitarian response also
emerged. An analysis on the
participant's evaluation of this consultation proceedings revealed
that, around 80 per cent of them were satisfied with 20 per cent
expressing that it had surpassed their expectations. The components
of case study presentations by DMI, CRS, CARE and CARITAS, group-work,
twin exercises, and open discussions were particularly appreciated
for opportunities of interaction and exchange of experiences. The
material shared with the participants during the consultation that
included, a background paper 'Reviewing the Shelter and Site Planning
Chapter of the Sphere Handbook,' a flyer on 'Sphere Project: Handbook
Revision (2002-2003),'and papers titled, 'Lessons from Earthquake
Relief and Rehabilitation in Gujarat: Community Based Housing in
a Disaster Context,' 'Challenging the Orthodoxy of Humanitarian:
Who Benefits from these Standards?' and 'Sphere Standards and Local
Reality: Cyclone (1998-99), Earthquake (2001) and Riots (2002)'
which were deemed useful by the participants. DMI's publications
on Sphere standards to include pocket books, brochures, experience
learning series also formed a part of the information pack. It was
however suggested that circulation of discussion papers before the
consultation would have enabled participants to be better prepared
for the day. In addition, 'The Sphere Handbook Revision: Shelter
and Site Planning Case Study Guidelines,' were circulated by DMI
with the objective of getting opinions of those professionals, who
could not participate in the meeting. Beyond
the meeting many organisations committed to contributing to the
process of institutionalising Sphere standards. NCDM proposed to
establish a partnership with DMI on conducting Sphere trainings
in various Administrative Training Institutes across the country.
Participating organisations also agreed on organising regional meetings
on food security and Sphere standards in different parts of India.
Work on organising and maintaining a resource pool of trainers and
training material in relation to the Sphere standards was proposed
to be activated. UNICEF offered DMI to work on developing a local
chapter on Standards for Emergency Education of Children in India.
CRS invited interested organisations and individuals to continue
their contribution to the process of revising the Sphere handbook
through electronic exchange. Finally, DMI offered to capture the
meetings deliberations in a report, which would be circulated to
various stakeholders and available for wider access through DMI
on a separate website. It is hoped that these efforts will help overcome the current situation wherein as expressed by Mr. Anil Sinha, Head, NCDM, "despite a system for disaster management in India, there appears to be no system," so that the aspiration of the Sphere standards in providing, "a proper shelter that gives basic security and positive self-image and dignity to victims, can become a reality rather than an intention alone," as said by Francis, P.U, Caritas India.
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