www.sphereproject.org

Drawing on international humanitarian law, the ‘Sphere Project’ is a set of minimum standards, indicators and guidance notes for disaster response, based on a Humanitarian Charter.

The first edition of Sphere was published in 2000, and a revised edition was produced for 2004.  The process of developing and revising the handbook was a huge collaborative effort involving 4000 people from 400 organisations in 80 countries. There is a commitment to revise the Sphere handbook every few years to ensure its continuing relevance in the context of a changing humanitarian sector. The date for the next revision process has not yet been finalised, but it should be completed within the next 2-3 years. All details will be posted as they become available on the Sphere Project website: www.sphereproject.org

The second edition of Sphere was produced in 2004 and the Sphere Board will launch the process to develop a revised third edition during 2007.

Sphere includes minimum standards for:

• water, sanitation and hygiene promotion
• food security, nutrition and food aid
• shelter, settlement and non-food items
• health services

Various cross-cutting issues underpin all emergency responses. Minimum standards common to all sectors and the Humanitarian Charter are also described by Sphere. Sphere emphasises the need to protect livelihood assets and includes some references to livestock interventions such as the protection of primary production assets, access to markets, water for livestock and the need to build on existing coping strategies. Given the breadth of the contents of Sphere, however, it cannot cover these issues in detail.