“Sphere makes it possible to federate everyone” – Nicole Attro

“Sphere allows us to federate, bring everyone up to speed without complicated manœuvres or repeated explanations.” Photo © Richard Mané / The Sphere Project

Nicole Attro is from the Ivory Coast and holds a Master’s degree in administration with a specialisation in development. She had been involved for a long time in the NGO sector, where she focused on youth issues, when she began working as a volunteer with her country’s Red Cross society.

“It was partly the opportunity as well as the desire to assist others in need that led me to humanitarian work,” Attro recalls. She was motivated by “a commitment to the community and all those in need”.

It was in 2000 and via the the Ivorian Red Cross’ humanitarian assistance to Liberian refugees entering the Ivory Coast that Attro received her first training in Sphere humanitarian standards.

The Red Cross personnel and volunteers were introduced to the Sphere standards by staff of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The goal of the training was to broaden Red Cross staff horizons by acquainting them with tools beyond those of their own organisation.

That first experience in the humanitarian field brought Attro to Lyon, France. In 2005, she enrolled at the Bioforce Institute and completed a course on Administration of international solidarity.

“One module touched on the Sphere standards,” she recalls. “The course interspersed theory with case studies, including those based on practical scenarios, and the Sphere standards were of course the reference used.”

Back in Africa, Attro worked in Niger, where she coordinated a community development programme for the French Red Cross society. Four years later, she moved to Chad, where she worked for CARE in a multisectorial humanitarian aid programme targeting refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) in southern Chad.

“CARE was in charge of a big operation there. There were four camps in the South as well as the Darfur (Sudan) refugees camp in the East. I was in the South where we had a multisectorial intervention and in fact the Sphere standards were the reference for the entire programmatic design and identification of indicators. Sphere was not only recognised as a tool but actually used.”

“So it was important to make sure that it was being used by all the actors in the field. There was also a consensus with the UNHCR technical teams who used the same references. It was just easier to talk the same language and use the same tools.”

Later on, Attro went back to Niger, this time with the UN World Food Programme, and then back to Chad, again with CARE. Throughout these changes across countries and organisations, her knowledge of Sphere standards always played a role in her work, one way or another.

Today, Attro is responsible for Oxfam Intermon’s humanitarian work in Chad. The situation is very fluid and giving figures is not easy. Oxfam Intermon programmes in southern Chad target returnees from the CAR, refugees and vulnerable host populations.

“At the moment, it’s Chad’s southern zone that is identified as a humanitarian crisis because of the situation of the populations who have returned from the CAR and settled in communities and villages, but also because of the refugees from Lake Chad, who are groups who have fled Nigeria and are arriving in Chad due to the conflict with Boko Haram.”

“We set up multisectorial response programmes. This involves access to water, hygiene and sanitation; it also means food security and thus food or cash distribution, including vouchers for the most vulnerable households. We assist these people but also the host communities because of the pressure on existing resources, which haven’t increased while the population has swelled.”

Do Sphere standards play any role in this context? Yes, says Attro. “They constitute a tool we use every day, especially in programming to ensure that our planning is correct, but also in implementation. It helps us to be thorough in our planning and to define the appropriate indicators for the programme. It’s very practical.”

But that’s not all. “In addition to the usefulness of the indicators, the very fact that the tool exists allows us to federate, bring everyone up to speed without complicated manœuvres or repeated explanations. When we’re talking about access to water, for example, we just say ‘according to Sphere standards’ and everyone knows what we’re talking about. That alone allows us to forge ahead.”

However, Attro acknowledges that “at the country level, not all organisations are at the same stage of implementation or ownership of Sphere standards”. Which suggests the need to have “mechanisms for sharing experiences and for consultation per country”.

“The idea is that a consultation framework can be a great space for sharing experiences, transferring skills as well as capacity-building so that these start-up initiatives don’t run out of steam. We have to be able to allow people to learn alongside practitioners.”

In Attro’s view, “this would help Sphere to receive feedback on how to update information, define best practices today. If people have developed new best practices, sharing that information allows others to review and redirect their own interventions. That’s what it’s about.”

[Nicole Attro participated in the 28-29 October .]

Get to know other Sphere practitioners in West Africa and Central Africa: