The Sphere Project

The Sphere Project

Basic Human rights of those affected by calamity and conflict is frequently not upheld. Born out of this concern, the Sphere project was launched in 1997 by a group of humanitarian NGOs and the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.

The project began by developing a handbook with two significant parts, a Humanitarian Charter and a set of universal minimum standards in core areas of disaster response.

The cornerstone of the project is the Humanitarian Charter, which is based on international treaties and conventions emphasises the right of disaster- affected people to life with dignity.

The Charter is followed by minimum standards in five core sectors namely;

• Water supply and sanitation.
• Nutrition.
• Food aid
• Shelter and site planning.
• Health services.

The purpose of the standards is to improve the quality of assistance provided to people affected by disasters, and to enhance the accountability of humanitarian aid in disaster response. The standards define the general requirements for life with dignity and are accompanied by indicators that provide qualitative and quantitative measures to relevant standards. The minimum standards seek to describe the level of disaster assistance to which all people have a right – regardless of political or ethnic or geographical specificity.

Downloads - An Introduction to The Sphere Project - Practitioner's Guide - Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

The Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards will not solve all the problems of humanitarian response, nor can they prevent all human suffering. What they offer is a tool for humanitarian agencies to enhance the effectiveness and quality of their assistance and thus to make a significant difference to the lives of people affected by disaster.

How the Standards came about

The minimum standards represent the collective opinion of hundreds of experts in humanitarian practice from 228 organisations. In times of disaster, aid and assistance is mainly given to the displaced through Government Emergency Relief Programmes and by NGOs. The Government also conducts most relocation programmes. Together the standards and indicators may usefully inform many aspects of humanitarian action, from assessment, analysis, program planning, monitoring and evaluation to advocacy and coordination.

The Sphere Manual

The Sphere Manual can be downloaded from the Sphere Project Website ::www.sphereproject.org .

The Sphere Toolkit.

The following list of tools have been developed to assist and understand the Sphere Project better and can be obtained at the Secretariat.

     1. The Sri Lanka Sphere Project Video – Available in all three languages.
     2. An introduction to the Sphere Project - Available in English and Tamil.
     3. The Sphere Documentary – Only in Sinhala.
     4. Posters - Available in all three languages.
     5. The Practitioners Reference Guide in the Field to the Sphere Project (The Guide) -
         English only.