14th July 2025
Earlier events in the year rocked the humanitarian sector to its core. Recovery has been slow but has showcased sheer resilience in the quest to keep doing good. We rarely stop to think of the impact on capacity strengthening and development – if the erasure of a whole sector is to be avoided, information must be shared, and education accessible.
Beyond blankets and clean water access, humanitarian principles must be guarded, safeguarding must continue to be prioritised – the call to ‘Do No Harm’ – loudly and clearly understood so heroes don’t become villains.
In this blog, we hear from Tristan Hale, Operations Director at Sphere – provider of The Sphere Handbook. Sphere, like many humanitarian organisations, is adapting to the new funding environment and finding creative ways to thrive. One of which is by moving all their online courses to Kaya.
Learning is a fundamental part of the work done at Sphere. To ensure its lasting impact for humanitarians now and in the future, HLA is collaborating with Sphere to help ensure humanitarians do not lose access to these free courses.
When you lose half your revenue, you examine every single cost with a microscope – and the LMS was an easy decision because HLA offered us a great alternative”
The interview
Tell us a bit about yourself, and your role at Sphere
Tristan: I started my career in the private sector and moved into the humanitarian sector around eight years ago. Sphere has a lean secretariat of just five staff so our roles are broad and hands-on. As Operations Director, I bridge the gap between vision and implementation, ensuring that Sphere runs smoothly, scales effectively, and maintains high standards of quality and efficiency.
What is Sphere and what does Sphere offer humanitarians?
Tristan: Sphere was formed in 1997 based on a need to professionalize the humanitarian sector (see The Sphere Story documentary). 28 years on, it’s often cited as one of the most successfully scaled innovations in the humanitarian sector. We offer The Humanitarian Charter, Protection Principles, Core Humanitarian Standard, and consensus-based minimum standards for WASH; Shelter and Settlement; Food Security and Nutrition; Health; and Economic Recovery – along with training materials and additional guidance to accompany them. We also host the Humanitarian Standards Partnership (HSP).
I think most humanitarians would find it difficult to imagine a world without Sphere (except those who are old enough to remember the time before). It is estimated that Sphere underpins around 80% of all humanitarian work globally. Hundreds of thousands of people rely directly on our content, and many more – including humanitarians, civil society actors, governments, and others – base their standards and principles on ours.
What inspired the close out of Sphere’s Learning Management System (LMS)?
Tristan: When you lose half your revenue, you examine every single cost with a microscope – and the LMS was an easy decision because HLA offered us a great alternative. The humanitarian sector needs to become more efficient, so every platform turned off without loss of important content or functionality is a step in the right direction.
The humanitarian sector needs to become more efficient, so every platform turned off without loss of important content or functionality is a step in the right direction.”
Thank you for choosing to put these on Kaya, can you share why you decided on Kaya?
There are many reasons. Save the Children is a founding member of Sphere, so our relationship is as old as Sphere itself. More recently, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, HLA became our Sphere focal point for Poland, deepening the partnership between our organisations. Kaya is a highly respected platform, and the HLA has fantastic global reach. Over the last twelve years, we’ve had on average of seventeen new registrations on our LMS each day, and it’s a pleasure to be redirecting these people to Kaya from 18 July 2025.
To those 75,000 people that registered on our LMS, I offer you my heartfelt thanks, and I hope you will continue to appreciate our courses – and many more – on Kaya.
How can humanitarians continue to engage with Sphere?
Tristan: We may no longer have our own LMS, but we’re still very much here, and there are many ways to engage with us! Visit the Sphere website to discover how, and check out the HSP website to discover our extended family of humanitarian standards.
The main way to engage with humanitarian standards is to use them – and if you’re not sure how to do this, then our online course, How to use the Sphere Handbook is the perfect place to begin your journey. Then to deepen your knowledge, browse all our other courses on our Online Courses page.
The Sphere network organises at least 200 in-person and online events each year, so keep an eye on the Sphere Calendar for upcoming opportunities.
To keep up to date with our latest projects, visit our newsfeed or join 100,000 other subscribers by signing up to our newsletter.
Exciting current projects include an AI literacy training for humanitarians workstream; new Connectivity As Aid (CAA) standards; and gathering community feedback with P-FIM.
Sphere is a leading expert in the sector on XML-first publishing, so if you are primarily producing content in PDF format, and you’re wondering how to make your content more accessible and reach bigger audiences – while reducing production costs – then contact me for a demo of some cool technology.
Sphere’s door is always open. To share how you are using Sphere standards, to discuss partnerships or otherwise engage with us, please get in touch.
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Thank you to Tristan, for giving space and time to not only shed more light on the decision for Sphere’s Learning Management System but to share other areas humanitarians can get involved with Sphere’s work.
There is an opportunity for more humanitarian organisations to analyse their operations and consider areas for collaboration and efficiency with related organisations across the sector. The HLA is open to conversations around our digital learning space and contributing to learning through our webinars and podcasts.