Giving Compass' Take:

• Angela Crack, Hilary Footitt, and Wine Tesseur discuss recent research that reveals that most NGO workers do not speak the local language and the language barrier interferes with the work being completed. 

• How can funders ensure that language barriers do not interfere with the work they fund? What language resources can help NGO workers learn new languages? 

• Find out why the Oxfam scandal didn't surprise Haitians. 

After the Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal in Haiti hit the headlines earlier this year, 22 aid agencies published an open letter declaring that they would “take every step to right our wrongs and eradicate abuse in our industry”. They made a commitment to “listen and take action”.

A cursory glance at NGO publicity materials reveals that they typically claim that they empower communities by listening and involving them in decisions about aid projects.

It is therefore reasonable to assume that aid workers share the same language as local communities (or at least that they use good interpreters). Otherwise, how could aid providers and aid recipients communicate with one another effectively? You might also assume that it is relatively easy to translate basic development terms into local languages. Development NGOs promote common goals, such as gender equality and human rights. Surely organisations must use common interpretations of these words when interacting with the people that they aim to help?

But our research suggests that this is typically not the case. We conducted a three-year project to explore the role of languages in international development, in conjunction with UK-based NGO INTRAC. We interviewed dozens of NGOs, officials from the UK’s Department of International Development (DfID), and conducted field research in developing countries. Our data led us to arrive at three startling conclusions.

  1. We found that languages generally have a low priority in development.
  2. Many development concepts that are essential to NGO work are not directly translatable into other languages.
  3. These language problems have negative effects on community participation, and the trust that communities have in NGOs.

Read the full article about NGOs and language barriers by Angela Crack, Hilary Footitt, and Wine Tesseur at Philanthropy Daily.