The Sphere Project Standards

The Sphere Project was launched in 1997 as an initiative by a group of NGOs, the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement. It is based on two core beliefs: a) the protection of dignity and the right to assistance of those affected by and suffering from a disaster, a conflict or a crisis; b) salvation of people who suffer from a conflict or disaster (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011).

The Sphere Project Team has published a Handbook which consists of 1) the Humanitarian Charter and 2) the Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. The Humanitarian Charter describes the legal responsibilities of national states and warring parties to protect and assist those affected. The Minimum Standards, on the other hand, consist of a set of good practices on how to respond in the event of a humanitarian crisis. In addition, the Handbook includes the following four technical chapters (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011): 

•  Water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion,
•  Food security and nutrition,
•  Shelter, settlement and non-food items,
•  Health services.

Scope of the Sphere Handbook

The Sphere Handbook is designed to provide standards and key indicators for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian response to both slow- and rapid-onset situations following natural disasters or conflicts. They are applicable worldwide in rural and urban environments, as well as in complex political emergencies. The handbook can also be used as a negotiation tool for local and international authorities in the event of a humanitarian crisis as well as for disaster preparedness planning activities (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011).

The Humanitarian Charter

(Adapted from THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011)

The Humanitarian Charter marks the cornerstone of the handbook and provides the ethical and legal backdrop to the protection and provision of international law in disaster response situations. It describes core principles that govern humanitarian action and sets the stage for the correct interpretation and implementation of the above. It establishes legal rights, obligations, shared beliefs and commitments of humanitarian actors and uses these to create a set of common principles, rights and duties as a statement.

The Charter identifies assistance and protection as the critical pillars of humanitarian action that are necessary to ensure basic conditions for a life with dignity. It asserts that all those affected by a disaster have a right to assistance, while recognising that those with the primary responsibility to do so are not always fully able to provide this support. The Protection Principles hence spread the responsibility for protection on all humanitarian actors that together must make sure that the most severe threats of the affected are tackled. The Charter further translates the legal principles and rights into strategies and actions. 

The Core Standards

(Adapted from THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011)

The Core Standards build the first set of standards that inform all other standards. They describe the processes and approaches which are fundamental for an effective response. They focus particularly on the capacity and active participation of the affected and provide a comprehensive analysis and understanding of the needs and context. It also offers direction for effective coordination among the involved actors.

While the Core Standards provide approaches that underpin all standards in the handbook, the Minimum Standards are qualitative and specify minimum levels for assistance in the technical areas of water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion; food security and nutrition; shelter, settlement and non-food items as well as health services. Both, commitment to continually improving performance and employing appropriately skilled aid workers are needed to achieve these technical standards.

The Core Humanitarian Standard and the Sphere Core Standards

The general idea of the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) and the Sphere Project Core Standards is to place those affected by a crisis at the core of the humanitarian response. CHS lays out the legal rights and obligations of those affected, while the Sphere Core Standards represent a practical expression of the CHS and are shown alongside the CHS core commitments in the following table (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2015a):

The UN indicates that “needs assessment and analysis is the first step in Project Cycle Management, since, without this information, it is not possible to effectively implement the following steps of Strategic Planning, Resource Mobilisation, Implementation & Monitoring and Operational Review & Evaluation” (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2014). The Sphere Project addresses all stages of the project cycle (besides decision making, that is considered to lie outside the responsibility of assessment teams but rather of senior managements) (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2014).

The following figure shows the process flow through various stages of the assessment cycle.

Contribution of Sphere Project to Needs Assessments

A critical starting point for a successful humanitarian response through the entire project cycle is a needs assessment. The need assessments are presented in the handbook as sets of checklists at the end of each Minimum Standard. Thus, the Sphere Handbook is a valuable resource for the design and implementation of a needs assessment and also provides further analysis and monitoring tools. The approach described in the Handbook should be incorporated as much as possible into a needs assessment at every stage of the response (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2014).

Contribution of Sphere Project to Rights-based and Participatory Assessments

The Sphere Core Standards and Protection Principles set a framework for rights-based and participatory assessments. Sphere can provide a solid foundation for the entire project cycle, thereby:

• Increasing the efficiency of individual agencies and of the humanitarian community as a whole
• Improving the quality of agency programming.
• lIncreasing accountability to both affected populations and donors.
• Using Sphere indicators in assessments will help monitor key issues over time and enable assessors to develop a shared understanding of what should be assessed.
• Comparing different sectors, assessments, and projects.
• Improving coordination and collaboration, with the indicators providing a common language for identifying and discussing critical issues during assessment and project implementation both inside and outside the organisation.
• Creating a framework for data collection over time, with increasing levels of detail.
• Creating the basis for monitoring and evaluation.

Although Sphere is relevant to both sudden onset and protracted humanitarian crises, the Sphere Standards for assessments focus on sudden onset emergencies, particularly when discussing assessment implementation. However, best practice in assessments is the same regardless of the type of emergency, hence this guide is also applicable to protracted crises. A key factor is that there is more time to prepare, assessment and refine assessment processes in slow-onset crises, enabling the good practice outlined here to be incorporated more easily (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2014).

Sphere’s Contribution to Monitoring and Evaluation

(Adapted from THE SPHERE PROJECT 2015b)

In addition to the guidance for technical sectors, Sphere provides valuable support for examining the performance of the humanitarian response. This is especially valuable in situations where humanitarian actors do not have internally set targets or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Sphere provides two distinct types of guidance on monitoring and evaluating humanitarian action:

• Internal aspects and processes such as programming processes, systems, capacities, and performance, and
• External aspects such as the degree to which technical humanitarian standards are met.

Sphere also provides added value by emphasising on a rights-based and participatory approach. The approach described in the Handbook should be incorporated as much as possible throughout the humanitarian programme cycle.