language kills (dec 2010)

8/7/2019 Language Kills (Dec 2010)

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Language Kills

James Shepherd-Barron, UNICEF


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Few practitioners would disagree that building the

confidence and capability in disempoweredcommunities to hold others more powerful to

account is the essential cornerstone of social changeKeystone (2006)


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Many local NGOs did notparticipate in coordinationmeetings because they could notspeak English well enough toparticipate in, or benefit from thediscussions

Feinstein ReportPakistan Earthquake

(2008)


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Coordination costs


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Coordination costs

Poor coordination costs lives


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Coordination costs


The language barrier is one of the

prime determinants of poor

coordination


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Coordination costs




coordination

Therefore language costslives


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Coordination costs




coordination



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coordination is critical to

efficientandeffectivedisasterresponse

IRC, Haiti

2010


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Its a classic dialogue of thedeaf: the cluster approach

remains a largely northern

soup of apparentlyirreconcilable acronyms and

vested interest

UN-OCHA Section Chief

(2009)


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Lackoftranslationand

interpreting services is a vital

missing link inourabilityto

coordinate humanitarianaid

effectively

HeadofOCHA, Haiti

2010


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Coordination costs




coordination



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the numbers ofpeople affected bydisasters will rise

from 250 million peryear now to 375million by 2015

DFID, 2009


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Local NGOs couldnot take parteffectively incoordinationmeetings because of

the languagebarrier

IASC Inter-Agency Real Time Evaluation

Cyclone Yemyinresponse

(2007)


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Beneficiary views should be

properly represented whenprioritizing need

SPHERE Humanitarian Standards


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Evaluations consistently

criticize disaster response for

failing to establish adequatemechanisms for consulting,

informing, and involving the

people affected by disaster.

ALNAP Annual Review, 2006


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The Cluster systemneeds to includea

dedicatedcapacitytoensuretwo-waycommunicationwith affected

communities

UN Global Symposium + 5;

Informationfor Humanitarian Action(2007)


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start thinking long termfrom day one or else Im left

picking up the handover piecesfrom a train wreck thats already

happened how on earth did

they decide to run the cluster

meetings only in English in

Padang, and hence completely

alienate the Gov and Local

NGO's

Senior Cluster Coordinator

West Java Earthquake Response

(2010)


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did not listen closelyenough to what the people

whose lives had been destroyedby the earthquake were saying

leads to misjudgments about

what is needed and errors in

strategy which then have to be

corrected compounded by

too much use of English in the

coordination mechanisms

Sir John Holmes

Former HeadofOCHA

Haiti, October 2010


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Better Communications Better Work Better World

Language services for disaster management

Yourneed

Theirright

Ourobligation


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Language Kills

James Shepherd-Barron

[email protected]

language kills (dec 2010)

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