Dear INGOs,
I am writing on behalf
of any and all individuals that live in Francophone countries that collaborate
with you through funding initiatives, programs, conferences, etc. and to
express my personal aggravation regarding the use of English in your key
documents and materials as well as communications with your Francophone
collaborators on the ground.
It has come to my
attention several times over the course of the past five months of living in a
Francophone country that an overwhelming amount of literature you provide to
Francophone individuals is unfortunately only available in English. Here is but
one example of the frustrations that are borne of this type of oversight:
At a conference hosted by several INGOs geared
towards ECOWAS Members’ Ministries of Education, a majority of the
presentations were conducted in English and the material provided (documents,
manuals, pamphlets etc) was in English. For your information, of the fifteen
ECOWAS countries, eight are Francophone, two are Lusophone (one of which
participates in the French monetary union and whose citizens speak French) and
five are English-speaking. At the end of the conference, the participants were
expected to use the materials provided to come up with a Plan of Action to be
monitored by the INGOs.
As a native English speaker, my colleagues
brought the materials to me to be translated into French. Discouraged, they
asked me, “How can we come up with a legitimate Plan of Action if we can’t even
read the materials?”
In 2013, I find it
appalling that this should be the case. As many INGOs work in countries where
English is not the national language, it’s disappointing and discouraging that
efforts are not made to provide participants and “collaborators” with the tools
they need in their working language to implement the projects that you suggest/encourage
that they put into place. Furthermore,
many of the INGOs that work here claim that French is one of their official
working languages. This becomes hard to believe when documents are not
then translated into this "official" language.
Lucky for the Ivoirian
Ministry of Education, I am here to provide capacity support, including
translating the documents that you fail to provide them in French. But, this is completely
unsustainable. Furthermore, what are they expected to do with this material,
which in most cases is highly technical? Use Google Translate?
What message are you
trying to send to the people you are supposed to be collaborating with? As a
colleague said to me, clearly deflated: “it’s as if they [INGOs] don’t even
care about us.” When I attempted to overcome this problem with the INGOs in the
example above via email, I was met with a dismissive attitude. I was told that
the presenters were used to presenting in English and felt more comfortable doing
so. And that my colleagues should have gotten the basic gist of the presentations
during the conference, despite it being in a different language. This attitude,
coupled with the fact that the participants (reminder: majority of which were Francophone) repeatedly asked for translated
documents and were given the run-around, further reinforces the statement made
above by my colleague.
If the purpose of
coming and leading conferences or providing materials to individuals in
developing nations is to build their capacity and put them on the path to development,
it is absolutely unacceptable to not provide them with documentation, PowerPoint
presentations, and what have you, in their own language.
I recognize the
financial burden that translation may place on organizations. But I do strongly
believe that there is no way this cost outweighs the benefits of providing
important translated content to people working to make change in their
countries.
I hope that this
letter is well received by all whom are concerned and that by voicing this
frustration, some changes will be made in the ways that INGOs communicate with
their Francophone counterparts.
Sincerely,
Justine Davis
No comments:
Post a Comment