The Interactive Handbook is a digital platform that provides online access to the Sphere Handbook and other sets of humanitarian standards in various languages. As of 2020, it also allows you to comment on, complement and help improve the handbook. You can post links to newly published resources, share your case studies and success stories or simply alert us to inaccuracies in the text. You can exchange your ideas with other practitioners in the Sphere community or make private notes for your own use.
If you submit a public comment, Sphere will check the content for relevance and validity and, if accepted, make it visible to other users. You can find out more about the validation process in the frequently asked questions below.
All shared content will also be stored to inform the next edition of the handbook. That means your contributions will help current and future humanitarians provide high-quality, accountable assistance and make sure people are always kept at the centre of humanitarian responses.
If you need technical assistance or additional information, contact us.
PLEASE NOTE: User comments are only accepted on the English interface of the Sphere Handbook for the moment. We hope to be able to accept comments on other language versions in the coming months.
We welcome any of the following:
You can also share your own opinions and experiences, which we will review on a case-by-case basis.
Our expert will assess each comment or resource to verify that it is eligible to become public, based on five criteria:
Individual opinions and experiences should be well supported and add value for other users of the Interactive Handbook.
“The standards are informed by available evidence and humanitarian experience. They present best practice based on broad consensus.”
– Sphere Handbook 2018
One of Sphere’s major contributions to the humanitarian sector is to bring the collective wisdom of thousands of practitioners together in each new edition of the handbook. More than 2,000 people submitted more than 4,500 comments during the last revision in 2017-2018.
Your learning and expertise and the resources you create help to shape global humanitarian standards and the way we respond to current and future crises. The content of the print versions of the handbooks will not change until the next edition, but we are committed to keeping online discussions ongoing at all times. Now that we have the technology to do so, please start sending us your contributions.