Between the 15th and the 17th of September, the cycle of workshops on SPHERE STANDARDS for HOPE – Master in Humanitarian Operations in Emergencies, Managing Projects, People Administration & Logistic in the Field, was held in Madrid, at the Social Change School’s Headquarters, and it was led by Ana Urgoiti, Sphere Trainer and Humanitarian Expert.
The first day was dedicated to an initial approach to “QUALITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE: SPHERE STANDARDS AND OTHER KEY STANDARDS”. Furthermore, the students had a first contact with the Humanitarian Charter, the Protection Principles and the Core Standards, in an interactive way, through group works.
On the second day, a first moment was dedicated to exploring the content of the Core Humanitarian Standards, which always have PEOPLE at its core. Afterwards, the students worked in groups to propose suggestions to improve the response to different humanitarian situations, according to the CHS (CORE HUMANITARIAN STANDARDS) and the protection principles. The rest of the day was centered around the overview of the four Technical chapters and on how to use Sphere in the project cycle. In the end, the students worked on case studies to apply those standards.
On Sunday morning, the workshop started with a simulation on the application of Sphere standards within the WASH chapter, using the Sphere handbook, which defines benchmarks in which to understand how to better assess the situation. Afterwards, the students worked on another case study, applying all the knowledge acquired on how to use the Standards Sphere book, analysing the situation and preparing a small project. The workshop ended with a contest, “Who wants to be a Sphere Freak”, where students had to answer 10 questions on the issues they had dealt with during the entire workshop.
The objective achieved in this series of workshops was to give the students a global understanding of the Sphere Standards and the capacity to apply them in practical situations in the field.
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