Opinion: Efforts to decolonize development must include local languages

For too long, international development has been dominated by colonial languages. It’s time for international NGOs to walk the talk on localization by meaningfully embracing local languages. That means prioritizing the preferred language of local staff members, partner organizations, and communities. But this isn’t easy to achieve when organizations work in areas of high linguistic and cultural diversity, especially in the context of tight budgets. Nonetheless, if organizations are serious about shifting power in the development sector, they can’t shrug off local languages as being too complicated. In a recent Devex interview, Moses Isooba, the executive director of the Uganda National NGO Forum, discussed the importance of language in maintaining power hierarchies in the aid system. To quote, “Development is something that’s done in English, Spanish, and French. Yet, language sets the terms of relational engagement. If we are going to have the systems change that we want, we need to start by changing the language, reinventing the language, and removing these old hints of colonialism, in line with the decolonization agenda.” This includes weaning ourselves off development jargon that those outside the sector find bewildering, incomprehensible, or remote from the realities of their lives. But what about machine translation, such as Google Translate? Not the silver bullet that some would have you believe. While machine translation produces fantastic results for major international languages such as English, French, and Chinese, it falls short for many “low-resource” languages spoken by millions of people. Unfortunately, machine translation has actually widened the digital divide. Plus, NGOs often deal with sensitive topics (such as sanitation) that need careful translation to avoid cultural faux pas. This might require the use of euphemisms or idioms that are very specific to a geographical area — and machine translation can’t replace a human translator with local know-how. So what are practical ways in which organizations can meaningfully engage with local languages? The Translation Glossary Project provides one way forward. It offers a new participatory method that can be used with communities to establish translations of terms with local resonance. Importantly, the method is designed not just to elicit translations of development jargon, but also translations of local terms that are central to people’s visions of development. In this way, our method can enable a two-way conversation, promoting more equitable dialogue, and a greater sense of local ownership. And what’s more, it’s low-cost. Here’s how it works. Gather a small group of local people with competence in the local language and your organization’s working language. The participants do not need any professional background in translation, just some familiarity with key development terms. Through interactive participatory exercises over three days, they will co-produce a two-way glossary of terms that they believe are essential for clear NGO-community communication. This is a great exercise to undertake at the needs assessment stage of a project, and when designing a project. You lay the groundwork for clear, culturally sensitive dialogue. By putting participants in control of deciding the glossary’s content, you’ll reveal what truly matters to them, how they conceptualize and articulate their challenges, and envision solutions. In our project, we worked with people in Malawi to co-produce a Chichewa-English translation glossary. It contains nearly 400 translations on topics such as the environment, agriculture, health, and gender — including 70 that are not listed in the Oxford-Chichewa dictionary! Want to try it yourself? Check out our project website for the glossary and a step-by-step handbook for practitioners who want to create their own glossary in different languages. The Malawi Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance road-tested the glossary during 2023-2024, integrating it into their delivery of a youth-focused project. Thirty participants were given a copy of the glossary and invited to use it in their conversations about the project. The focus group data revealed that community participants felt that it improved their Chichewa and English vocabulary, enhanced their understanding of the project, and improved their confidence in participating in evaluation activities. To quote one participant, “The glossary translated Chichewa words that are related to [the project] in which I am confident that if I use those terms, I can provide good feedback.” An added bonus is that the local implementers of the project also found that the glossary helped them to perform their roles more effectively, particularly with translating taboo words. It provided them with valuable language support with routine tasks, as one implementer explained: “I use it as one of the reference materials, sometimes when I am planning for community activities, I use the booklet to check the meanings.” The key lesson learned from this initiative is that there are creative ways to bridge the language gap, which not only improve communication and relationships but also boost project effectiveness. Want to promote locally-led development? Start with words.