Talking points Sphere Conference

London, 3 December 1998

Ed Schenkenberg van Mierop

ICVA Coordinator

Before I would like to go into the issue of institutionalising the Sphere standards among the ICVA membership, I would like to draw your attention to some remarks/ questions about the Sphere project that ICVA has received from its member organisations during the past months.

(From an individual who works with a big operational INGO)

• Is Sphere an effort of the G8 in humanitarian aid (i.e. SCHR) to sideline or marginalise further the Southern NGOs? Or, is this an effort to punish the smaller Northern NGOs (or those who are new on the scene) since many of them are (held) responsible for making a mesh of the Great Lakes in ‘94.

(From a international NGO)

• Does Sphere intend to make special arrangements for smaller (southern) NGOs who probably do not have the capacity to work according to the standards?

(From Southern NGOs)

• What is expected from us; do we need to sign onto Sphere?

• What will happen if we (the southern NGOs) indicate that we would like to work according to the Sphere standards but it turns out that we are unable to implement them?

• Will ICVA be providing special training on Sphere to us?

Although you may have heard many of these questions and remarks before, it is key that they will be taken into account the moment we start to talk about institutionalising Sphere. In addition to these remarks, I would like to add from the ICVA perspective a worrying lack of feedback from ICVA member organisations, in particular from those from the developing countries. Perhaps this lack of feedback is because of the fact that not all are aware that ICVA has risen from the ashes. However, it may also due to other factors; one of them being the (mis-) perception that Sphere is not intended for them either because they are southern, or because they are more focussed on sustainable development, or both.

In talking about institutionalising Sphere, I would particularly to pick up on this last point, the limitation of Sphere to humanitarian emergencies - at least at this point in time, and point out that in institutionalising Sphere in particular with national NGOs from the South this limitation may be no longer appropriate.

I have defined 6 points that are relevant to achieve a successful implementation of the standards among southern NGOs. (They are not in an order of priority.)

• Raise and ensure commitment of big operational INGOs to engage in training and capacity building of national NGOs / national staff on Sphere

It is clear that in order to instituationalise Sphere among NGOs from developing countries, this will rely heavily on training and capacity-building initiatives. These need to be undertaken by the big international NGOs or their networks. It is important here to note the different approaches of the INGOs regarding these activities. These differences obviously derive from mission objectives and working methodologies. Certain NGOs will enter a country for the reason to develop training and capacitybuilding initiatives. Others will approach these initiatives more as some kind of derivatives from their operations. From my own experience with such a NGO, I remember that training and/or capacity building of national NGOs got priority when it was an essential part of the operational strategy, aimed at directly accessing and assisting the beneficiaries. However, regardless the approach taken, it is important that Sphere is brought into these activities as much as possible, some times by simply adding the name of Sphere to the already existing training elements that de facto do follow the standards.

• Research value and relevance of Sphere standards conflict rehabilitation phase and long term development

National NGOs from developing countries traditionally consider themselves more development oriented than humanitarian. In many cases humanitarian they believe is a western concept or has a too narrow connotation in terms of human and social development. At the same time, as said earlier, northern NGOs that have more a development focus should give attention to Sphere in their training and capacity building programs. Having said this, it becomes vital that we do not limit Sphere to the emergency phase. We should research which of the standards are applicable — and to which extent — in post disaster situations, in particular the rehabilitation phase. And, linked to this, we should increase the involvement of organisations that have a specific interest in sustainable development in terms of promoting the sphere standards within their training and capacity building initiatives.

• Ensure NON-Governmental character of Sphere

There exists a wide and deep commitment among the NGOs to commit them selves to working towards the implementation of the standards. However, possibly the worst that could happen in the second phase in my view is that agencies, particularly the smaller ones, sign onto the standards out of a fear that they will loose donor funds in the near future, should they not be signatories. We are all aware of the potential risk that donor governments will use the standards as monitoring tool and eventually as criteria for donor funding. This risk is not to be underestimated. Therefore, although it may be difficult to avoid this side-effect, it is essential that the ownership of Sphere remains with the NGOs and that that the second phase remains a NGO steered project.

Ensure the embedding of Sphere in its humanitarian context

Much has been said in the first phase on the danger of detaching Sphere from its humanitarian context. It is exactly because of this that the sphere standards have taken a rights-based approach and that protection elements must be brought into the project in the second phase. However, instead of developing a protection initiative under Sphere, it would be much better that Sphere would link with a number of initiatives already existing among others led by ICRC, the Global IDP survey, MSF(H), etc. perhaps Sphere could consolidate and incorporate the conclusions coming out of these several initiatives. It is important that Sphere refers NGOs to their responsibilities vis a vis human rights and protection issues. As a minimum rule seems to apply here the AI adagium of ‘no silent witnesses’.

• Develop an assessment role within Sphere project (or its member agencies) to assess — on their request- the capacity of (southern) NGO for working according to Sphere and to help them defining necessary action for achieving that capacity

As has been described in the project design, in the second phase the project will be examining compliance mechanisms. It seems to me that it is equally important, perhaps it can even serve as an alternative for a compliance mechanism, to develop a role within Sphere to assess the capacity of (southern) NGOs who want to work according to the standards and to help them defining the necessary action enabling them to do this. In order to ensure that Sphere will not have the effect that it will side-line NGOs, there must be guarantee that all NGOs can achieve the ‘minimum level’ and work according to the standards, should they wish so. An assessment role of NGOs’ capacities may provide this guarantee.

• Identify lead-agencies for institutionalizing Sphere in specific regions.

It has been envisaged that in the second phase some agencies will be identified that are committed to trial the standards within their operations.

I should like to add that it is key that next to implementing the standards within their own activities, these so-called Sphere pilot agencies will also be committed to take the lead in disseminating the standards within the countries they work. For example, one ICVA member is committed to work with the standards by translating them into Russian and to circulate them among east European NGOs. From a practical point of view, it may be useful to identify these lead agencies on a regional basis or based on their core competencies on a sectoral basis. ICVA will continue its role to increase awareness and knowledge on Sphere among its members. In addition, ICVA will encourage its members to sign onto Sphere. Lastly, it will look into how it can play an instrumental role in working towards the implementations of the points mentioned before.