These standards are being developed by a group of over 30 practitioners experienced in relief and development in crisis environments. The standards span four technical areas: financial services, access to assets, enterprise development, and employment, as well as addressing issues common to all technical sectors, and assessments and analysis in crisis environments. The goal of the standards is to promote better practices in these interventions and supporting operations, so as to improve impact and potentially accelerate economic reconstruction.

The standards are being developed by a SEEP-facilitated working group, with support from the USAID FIELD-Support LWA program. SEEP is also coordinating the development of these standards with the Sphere Project, with the hope that the standards may be used as a ‘companion module’ to the next revision of the Sphere handbook for humanitarian relief.

We will launch the draft of the standards online in June 2008 for a public review and comment process. The standards will be published as a first edition in October 2008 and launched at the SEEP Annual Conference in November. Further consultations and a pilot-testing phase are currently envisioned; check back for more details later in 2008.

Lead facilitator: Tracy Gerstle , CHF International
Co-facilitator: Laura Meissner , SEEP Network