Yaoundé. The residents of the Foyer Colonel-Daniel-de-Rouffignac for the blind support each other a lot, especially during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: DANIEL BELOUMOU/ICRC.   Read the Sphere Annual Report 2020 Download the full financial statements 2020 In the midst of a pandemic, the past…

  Laurie Chartrand and Anna Ploeg are students at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. During a 10-month research project in collaboration with the Humanitarian Exchange and Research Center (HERE-Geneva), they explored how the concept of “life-saving” humanitarian assistance has evolved since…

Sphere was established in 1997 as an inter-agency project in response to concerns about the performance, accountability and lack of coordination among humanitarian actors during the Great Lakes refugee crisis. Sphere developed standards for humanitarian response which have inspired generations of humanitarians, and transformed from a project to an…

  https://spherestandards.org/wp-content/uploads/SIP-promotional-video.mp4   Sphere’s newly released e-learning course “Sphere in Practice” supports students, humanitarian professionals and anyone who wishes to learn about humanitarian standards in an interactive and engaging way. On top of being entirely free of charge and soon available in multiple languages, “Sphere in Practice” is designed…

Photo courtesy of War Child Holland   By Dr Unni Krishnan The ancient Spanish port city of A Coruña has a fascinating history – one which contains many parallels with our present fight against a global pandemic. In fact, the city shares its name with the virus that currently…

Participants of the Training of Trainers workshop in Burkina Faso. Photo: Illiassou Adamou   Every year, a committed group of some 120 Sphere trainers across 50 countries is responsible for spreading knowledge of Sphere standards among field practitioners, policymakers and government officials around the world, advocating for the importance…

Members of the translation and publishing team hold copies of the newly released Brazilian-Portuguese Handbook. Photo: Fraternidade-Federação Humanitária Internacional   Sphere’s focal point organisation in Brazil, Fraternidade-Federação Humanitária Internacional (FFHI), recently completed the translation of the Sphere Handbook into Brazilian Portuguese. You can now download the PDF for…

The Philippine Red Cross engages communities to better prepare for and cope with the impact of disasters and health hazards. Photo: Juan Carlo de Vela / Japanese Red Cross Society   Sphere released a new resource that supports humanitarian practitioners implementing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities while keeping a standard-based…

    This opinion piece by Sphere Executive Director Dr Balwant Singh is an excerpt of the latest Humanitarian Accountability Report, released by the CHS Alliance in October 2020. Read the Humanitarian Accountability Report 2020 in full   Covid-19 demands our undivided attention and requires effective and timely…

  By Aninia Nadig, Sphere’s Policy and Pratice Manager  Do you sometimes feel confused about different kinds of guidance on the same topic and wonder which one you should follow? I would like to offer a way of navigating through different kinds of guidance using one example…