The idea for the Translation Glossary emerged from a research project called The Listening Zones of NGOs, led by Professor Hilary Footitt, with Dr Angela Crack, Dr Wine Tesseur and INTRAC. It included case study evidence from Malawi, collected by Angela with the assistance of Dr Michael Chasukwa. The project resulted in a book: Development NGOs and Languages: Listening, Power and Inclusion.

Listening Zones revealed that many NGO workers cannot speak the languages of the communities that they work with. Translation problems often lead to a breakdown of trust between NGO and the community, and the failure of development initiatives. Our research participants suggested that their lives could be made easier by something simple. They wanted a handy translation glossary of development terminology to help NGOs and communities understand one another better. But this did not exist in Malawi, or Peru, or Kyrgyzstan, which were the other case study countries that were investigated by the Listening Zones project.  

Angela, Michael and the Listening Zones participants in Malawi decided to make the idea of the translation glossary a reality. The Chichewa-English glossary was produced through wonderful, creative workshops in Lilongwe and Zomba, as described in our free handbook.

We wanted our Peruvian and Kyrgyz participants to benefit from what we have learned, and so we translated the handbook into Spanish and Russian. However, the handbook is designed to be used in any language context, and in any country. We’d love our glossary to be the first of many!