Language matters in aid effectiveness: Overview Hilary Smith Affiliate, College of Arts and Social Sciences Affiliate, Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (COEDL) [email protected]
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Language matters in
aid effectiveness:
Overview
Hilary Smith Affiliate, College of Arts and Social Sciences
Affiliate, Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (COEDL)
Language and development
[email protected] AAC February 2017 2
(Casey & Owen, 2014)
High ethnolinguistic diversity tends to co-occur with:
• Topographic heterogeneity
• Rapidly growing populations
• Low economic growth
… Australasian region?
Territory size shows the proportion of the world's
Indigenous living languages that are spoken there.
[email protected] AAC FEbruary 2017 3
(Worldmapper.org, 2016)
Linguistic dimensions of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)
(Language and the UN, 2016):
1. Language as a goal
‘a substantive element of the goal itself’
2. Language as a tool
‘a means of communication, dialogue, response
and implementation’
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Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
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• Illiteracy/pre-literacy highly
correlates with poverty
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Marginalised/remote
communities are more
likely to speak minority
languages → need to
communicate effectively
AAC FEbruary 2017 6 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Everyone needs to be able to understand health
promotion materials
AAC FEbruary 2017 7 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Mother-Tongue based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-
MLE) most cost-effective: cognitive, social, cultural
benefits – and faster to other languages
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Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
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• Girls’ education in Mother Tongue has even more
benefits
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Everyone needs a
‘voice’ in decision-
making, e.g. for
privatisation of water
AAC FEbruary 2017 10 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Dialogue with stakeholders will ensure sustainability
of innovations
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Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Access to official and ‘international’ languages =
opportunity for work
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Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
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• Linguistic issues
underpin sustainable
growth
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Increasing power of a global Anglophone élite
AAC FEbruary 2017 14 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Disaster preparedness plans need to reach all language
groups
AAC FEbruary 2017 15 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Traditional knowledge
systems encoded in
language
AAC FEbruary 2017 16 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Climate change mitigation efforts more sustainable if
linked in to traditional concepts
AAC FEbruary 2017 17 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Local languages carry
traditional knowledge
about the sustainable
use of marine
resources
AAC FEbruary 2017 18 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Ethnobotany links to linguistic knowledge of terrestrial
ecosystems
AAC FEbruary 2017 19 [email protected]
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
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• Languages are central to cultural identity (→ justice,
peace, inclusiveness)
Language dimensions of the SDGs
(examples)
• Translation and interpretation will enable everyone to be
included in the partnerships
AAC FEbruary 2017 21 [email protected]
Conclusion
Language and the UN (2016, p. 2):
‘[T]here is an urgent need to include
language at the planning, implementation
and assessment stages of each of the
SDGs.’
→ aid projects and programmes
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References
Casey, G. P., and A. L. Owen. 2014. ‘Inequality and fractionalisation.’ World
Development 56: 32-50.
Language and the UN. 2016. ‘Conclusions’. Symposium on Language and the
Sustainable Development Goals, 21-22 April 2016.
www.languageandtheun.org
UNESCO Bangkok. 2012. Why language matters for the Millennium
Development Goals.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002152/215296e.pdf
SIL. 2014. Why languages matter: Meeting the Millennium Development Goals
through local languages.
https://www.sil.org/sites/default/files/mdg_booklet_2014_english_web.pdf
UN Sustainable Development Knowledge platform.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org
AAC FEbruary 2017 23 [email protected]
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