Aslı Maraşlı Wojciechowski, Senior Learning Officer, IFRC Türkiye Delegation

The Turkish Red Crescent Society (TRCS) and the Sphere Secretariat, with the support of the IFRC Türkiye Delegation, just completed an ambitious project to promote humanitarian standards in Türkiye, neighbouring countries, and globally.

Running from February 2024 to February 2025, the Sphere Türkiye Project succeeded in growing awareness, knowledge, and implementation of Sphere standards in humanitarian assistance.

Increasing visibility through global engagement

Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW)

In May 2024, two events at HNPW introduced the project and the events that led to its inception. With online and face-to-face participation options, humanitarian actors around the world were able to join the conversations.

• Keeping quality at the forefront of humanitarian assistance
  Event recording │ Event information
• Lessons learnt from Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes in Türkiye
  Event information (including presentation slides)

A landmark gathering in Antalya

The Global Focal Points Forum (GFPF) 2024, held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 13 to 15 November 2024, was not only a key event for the project, but for the whole Sphere network.

Seven years after the first GFPF in Bangkok in 2017, the second edition brought together 64 Sphere focal point representatives from 39 countries to share their experiences and challenges, and to discuss the future evolution of Sphere Minimum Standards for Humanitarian Response.

Participants of the GFPF 2024 in Antalya

Opening remarks were provided by Jessie Thomson, Head of Delegation, IFRC Türkiye; Alper Küçük, Director General of International Affairs and Migration Services, TRCS, and President, Sphere Association; and William Anderson, Director, Sphere Association.

“Sphere has a long history, in which IFRC has been involved from the start, throughout, and is still highly active. By promoting a common understanding of what good humanitarian work looks like, the standards guide IFRC to make good decisions which are respectful of local contexts.” – Jessie Thomson

Strengthening capacities through training

Sphere workshops

As part of the project, TRCS organised six Sphere workshops reaching 181 participants including TRCS staff and volunteers; Care International Türkiye staff; and local government officers.

Sphere training with Care International and Government staff in Adana

Workshop participants gained the knowledge and skills they required to implement Sphere standards effectively in their respective fields.

Training of Trainers (ToT) programmes

The project included two ToT workshops held on 8-12 July 2024 and 3-7 February 2025.

Following these interactive sessions – which featured expert guidance and Q&A sessions with Sphere’s Head of Learning and Events Felicity Fallon – TRCS now has 34 Sphere trainers among its staff and volunteers.

Self-paced online course

To ensure wider accessibility to Sphere standards, TRCS Academy, in collaboration with RedR UK, translated and localised the How to use the Sphere Handbook e-learning course into Turkish, enabling humanitarian actors in Türkiye to engage with Sphere content in their native language.

The Sphere Secretariat is grateful to Aslı who became part of the team and worked tirelessly for a year to successfully manage this project – and to Alper, Ece, and Jessie who were instrumental in making the project happen.

The project was led locally in Türkiye with the Sphere Secretariat providing technical support on request – representing the highest degrees of localisation and participation. The Sphere Secretariat continues to provide a small yet stable central function to support and enable the global Sphere network.

Look out for a comprehensive report of the Sphere Türkiye Project coming soon.

Access Sphere online courses here: https://learning.spherestandards.org/

Cover image: Sphere training at a Summer youth camp in Istanbul