Does the Humanitarian Sector Use Evidence-informed Standards? A Review of the 2011 Sphere Indicators for Wash, Food Security and Nutrition, and Health Action

Abstract

Background: In 1997, the pursuit of greater accountability and effectiveness in humanitarian response prompted a multi-stakeholder collaboration to develop a set of indicators and standards to guide humanitarian practitioners, published later in the form of the Sphere Handbook. Twenty years after the first edition of the Handbook was developed, and in order to guide the 2018 revision, an assessment of the evidence base for current Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Food Security and Nutrition, and Health Action indicators, as compared to evidence collated by the 2015 LSHTM Humanitarian Health Evidence Review (HHER), was conducted.