After the Rwandan genocide and Great Lakes Crisis of 1994, many of the responding NGOs were criticized for their lack of standards and accountability. As a result, multiple humanitarian agencies came together to develop the Sphere Project. The Sphere Project was founded on the principle that all possible steps should be taken to alleviate human suffering arising out of calamity and conflict, and that those affected by disaster have a right to life with dignity and a right to assistance. The Sphere Project sets minimum standards for all humanitarian relief. The project tells us how much water, sanitation, food, shelter and health should be provided by any humanitarian response. Coming up Dr. Balsari will give us some of the history behind these standards and provide real world examples. >> Today we are going to talk about the Sphere Project. That encompasses the Humanitarian Charter, which we have covered before, and minimum standards in humanitarian response. First I'd like you to think about a refugee camp and what it looks like, one that you may have seen, or seen in books or newspapers. You may even have worked in one before. You may have seen rows and rows of tents, portable toilets, some cooking areas, children playing, or maybe studying in make-shift schools. Refugee camps end up hosting thousands of families. These camps often grow exponentially in their early days. As one group of families settles in, another group arrives. Sometimes this happens around the clock. They have to be registered, rapid assessment surveys have to be conducted to establish their immediate needs, their wants, questions about their baseline health status, their families, separated family members have to be asked. Behind this complex and seemingly chaotic ecosystem, there is, believe it or not, incredible planning and order. Ever wondered how one estimates what the needs on the ground are going to be? How much water will be needed? How much food? How many tents? How much space is adequate per person? Per family? Does a family from a slum in Mumbai affected by an earthquake need less space than one living in a bungalow in the United States? Who decides what is enough for them? Today we're going to examine how these questions have been answered. We go back to the 1990s. The 1990s saw a rapid increase in humanitarian activities on the ground, and a number of agencies in the world started engaging in humanitarian response. Notable was the Great Lakes refugee crisis of 1994 when 2 million Rwandans sought refuge in neighboring countries in the Great Lakes region in Africa. Donors and NGOs were very critical about the response then, and concluded that there needed to be A, greater accountability and B, better standards in humanitarian response and service delivery. A large number of agencies, largely grouped under two headings, one called the interaction and the other the steering committee for humanitarian response, came together to set these standards in humanitarian response. From it was born the Sphere Project. The Sphere Project has largely undergone three large iterations since then, and have came to an official close in 2004. Its focus has shifted to where it's facilitating the work of people already using and promoting Sphere at national and regional levels. The Sphere Project lays out minimum standards that one must aim for while coordinating humanitarian response. However, it is not only a handbook of these standards, but it is an expression of commitment to the quality and accountability that one must follow in the humanitarian setting. And this was agreed upon through a broad process of collaboration between hundreds of humanitarian actors. It is important to realize that Sphere is based on two core beliefs. First, that all possible steps should be taken to alleviate human suffering arising out of calamity and conflict. And second, that those affected by disaster have a right to life with dignity, and therefore have the right to assistance. While we now explore these minimum standards defined by the Sphere Project, it is critical to remember and recognize that central to humanitarian assistance is this restoration of human dignity to the populations we serve. This humanitarian obligation, is the culmination of at least a century and a half of international law that affirms the right of those affected by disasters to assistance. The services provided are not a charitable impulse, but therefore, only a means to fulfill the international community's obligations to the effected populations. While the Sphere handbook includes the Humanitarian Charter and the code of conduct for all these agencies, it also includes a technical section that spells out these minimum standards in response. We will now take a look at these sections. The minimum standards are divided into four parts. First, water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion. Second, food security, nutrition, and food aid. Third, shelter, settlement, and non-food items. And fourth, health services. Each chapter outlines minimum standards, key indicators to measure these standards, and also provides guidance notes. This is a good time to reiterate that the standards are based on the principle that populations affected by disaster have the right to life with dignity. The guidance notes relate to specific points that should be considered when applying standards in different situations. They offer advice in prioritization and on tackling practical difficulties. They share past experience, and alert us to gaps in current knowledge. Let us take a look at an example. Say there is a camp of 10,000 people. How will you calculate how much water they need? And importantly, how is this water going to be distributed? How many taps or hand pumps or single-user open wells will be sufficient in this camp? Sphere gets into these details as well. 250 people per tap, based on a flow of 7.5 liters a minute. Or 500 people per hand pump, based on a flow of 16.6 liters per minute. Or 400 people per single-user open well, based on a flow of 12.5 liters per minute. So you see the level of detail that the Sphere Project gets into. A guidance note accompanying these standards will include instructions on conducting a sanitary survey, checking microbiological water quality, promotion of protected sources of water, water disinfection, etc. It may also talk about lessons learned from past experiences and areas of research that need to be done to strengthen these standards. We encourage you to download the Sphere handbook and peruse through it. Looking at these areas of delivery covered by the Sphere Project will give you a sense of what the service delivery priorities have been in the humanitarian sector over the last two decades. As an end note, remember that this is a process in evolution, and not without its critics. For example, some NGOs feel that the handbook is very technical and reduces humanitarian response to merely service delivery without adequate focus on solidarity and witnessing. But that is a discussion for another time.