Humanitarian professionals from natural disaster and conflict-prone areas such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan immersed themselves for a full week from October 25 to November 2, 2009 to sharpen their skills and develop their capacity from a team of international facilitators who shared their expertise in training and facilitation skills, especially in the field of Sphere, the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.


“I learned a lot about tips in holding a good training and how to facilitate training,” said Maharani Hardjoko from Save the Children Indonesia. She was one of nine women and ten men from various humanitarian organizations in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia, Korea, Bangladesh and Thailand whose working knowledge of Sphere and training experience has secured their seat at the Sphere Training of Trainers Regional Course Asia Pacific from October 25-November 2, 2009 in Sam Phran, a quiet town an hour away from Bangkok, Thailand.

The training included a wide variety of methods, including presentations, participatory exercises, group discussions, role plays and films. All the participants did a pre-course assignment to help them prepare for the course by refreshing their knowledge on Sphere. As the aim of the course was to train trainers, all the participants did a short 10 minutes presentation on Sphere in small groups. During the second half of the training, as group of two or three, the participants conducted participant-led sessions, where they planned and delivered an hour session. All sessions that required public speaking, such as the 10-minutes presentation and the participant-led sessions were recorded in video camera. The presentation clips where then discussed and this method has greatly helped the participants to promptly identify and see their strengths and weaknesses in planning and delivering a training session.

CWS Asia Pacific, in collaboration with The Sphere Project held the training of trainer event, which aimed at preparing participants to apply Sphere, the humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response as a tool for improving the quality and accountability of humanitarian action, through sharing experiences and practicing.

Shabana Bhati, the Sphere Focal Point for Pakistan from CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan highlighted that in order to provide quality and accountability in any country, government organizations and the humanitarian community must work together. CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan and CWS Asia Pacific commit to promote use of Sphere Minimum Standards in disaster response and provide opportunity to humanitarian workers to enhance their capacities so that they can ensure quality and accountability in humanitarian assistance; while Anne Lloyd, the lead trainer, emphasized that, “the joint collaboration between CWS Asia Pacific and The Sphere Project will boost bigger impact on training follow up,” has set the Sphere Training of Trainer Regional Course Asia Pacific apart from other Sphere-related trainings.

During breaks and after sessions, the 21 participants who were of more than 15 nationalities did not waste their opportunity to do one-on-one discussions with Anne Lloyd, Paul O’Hagan and Ahmad Usman, the training facilitators with international experience in conducting Sphere trainings in South Africa, Pakistan, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

“It takes time to get people to get to a group, to get settle down into focus. The idea is to use the room dynamically.” Anne Lloyd explained to a group who was sitting on a couch during one evening, discussing challenges they may face in their participant-led training session on “Using Sphere in Assessment”. While during a session on training tips, Paul O’Hagan, one of the facilitator, stood up in the middle of the room, sharing tips on avoiding explosive situation in training, “You may want to ask opinions from others who have not said anything. Group work is also a way to encourage inclusive participation.”

Feedbacks from the participants noted that participant-led session, where training participants had to plan and deliver their own training session in groups, were popular; as well as the new training methods and techniques. The participant-led session showed that the level of confidence of the participants to conduct Sphere training on their own was growing

At the end of the training, each participant completed a postcard, writing three things that they will do in the next three months related to this training, and then they addressed the postcards to themselves. CWS Asia Pacific will post the postcards back to the participants in three months time, encouraging them to share information on their activities promoting Sphere. Besides, each participant also produced an action plan at the end of the training, which contains types of activities, the timeline as well as person in charge to raise awareness or knowledge on Sphere in their respective organization.

P. Shanmuhasuntharam from Mercy Malaysia expressed that, “this training adds weight and integrity to our regular Sphere training that we’ve been conducting for our volunteers and staff.”

Sphere Training of Trainers Regional Course Asia Pacific is an essential initiative in setting benchmarks to overall performance, quality and accountability of humanitarian workers who currently are facing increased numbers of disasters in more complex environment, especially in Asia Pacific region as summed up by Takeshi Komino, the Head of Emergencies for CWS Asia Pacific, who later added, “We, humanitarian workers should work in strong coordination and collaboration with many different actors in both prevention and response. We are committed to utilize and support Sphere initiatives further, and we will continue to work with Sphere colleagues both regionally and globally."