Events

At the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW) 2025, Sphere trainer Aya Yagan contributed to the global launch of the Operationalising the Sphere Handbook: A Practical Guide to Contextualisation, developed in collaboration with Sphere and humanitarian practitioners worldwide. The guide focuses on translating global standards into practical, context-sensitive approaches that can be applied across diverse operational settings.

The session brought together practitioners from different regions to reflect on how Sphere standards can be meaningfully applied in practice, highlighting real-world experiences, challenges, and innovations in contextualisation. It reinforced the importance of moving beyond rigid compliance towards locally grounded and adaptive humanitarian action.

Aya played a key role in this work, including leading the development of the guide and facilitating the launch session, supporting dialogue and shared learning across the sector.

This special event marked the launch of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) in collaboration with local and international partners, bringing together humanitarian actors to strengthen a shared commitment to quality, accountability, and people-centred response.

The session focused on introducing the CHS framework and its practical relevance across humanitarian operations, highlighting how organisations can improve accountability to affected populations, feedback and complaints mechanisms, and ethical service delivery. It also emphasised the importance of local partnerships and collective action in advancing the uptake of the standard across different contexts.

Aya Yagan contributed to this event as a facilitator, supporting dialogue between local and international actors and helping to translate the CHS commitments into practical, context-sensitive approaches. The session created space for shared learning, reflection, and alignment around improving the quality and integrity of humanitarian response.

As part of the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW), this session brings together practitioners and trainers from different regions to showcase how Sphere standards are applied in diverse humanitarian contexts worldwide.

The event focuses on real-world implementation, highlighting how organisations adapt standards to complex environments, operational constraints, and community priorities. Through shared experiences, it demonstrates that effective use of the Sphere framework depends not on rigid compliance, but on contextualised, locally informed application.

Aya Yagan contributed to this global exchange as part of the Sphere community of practitioners, supporting dialogue on how standards can be translated into practical, field-driven approaches. The session reinforces the importance of peer learning, cross-context comparison, and continuous adaptation in improving humanitarian quality and accountability.

As part of Sphere’s global learning and outreach efforts, Aya Yagan contributed to advancing the practical application of humanitarian standards through simulation-based approaches.

This session explores how Sphere standards can be integrated into disaster simulation and table-top exercises, enabling humanitarian actors to test decision-making, coordination, and response quality in realistic scenarios. The event highlights how simulations can serve as a bridge between technical standards and operational readiness, strengthening practitioners’ ability to apply principles of quality, accountability, and dignity under pressure.

This work reflects the broader contribution to translating Sphere standards into practical tools and learning processes, supporting organisations to move from theoretical understanding to applied practice in complex humanitarian settings.

This session marks the launch of the Sphere Standards in Urban Contexts training package, an initiative developed to support humanitarian actors working in increasingly complex urban environments.

The event introduces a structured learning approach to applying Sphere standards in dense, service-dependent, and highly interconnected urban settings, where traditional humanitarian models often face limitations. It highlights key challenges such as infrastructure complexity, service delivery systems, and coordination across multiple stakeholders, while offering practical tools for more effective and context-sensitive responses.

Aya Yagan played a key role in this work, contributing to the development and facilitation of the training package and its launch. Her engagement reflects a broader commitment to ensuring that humanitarian standards remain relevant, adaptable, and operational in evolving crisis contexts, particularly in urban settings.