Researching translation and interpreting in non-governmental organisations

Non-governmental organisations hold an important place in today’s globalised society. After presenting an overview of previous research on Translation and Interpreting Studies on language mediation in NGOs, this introduction to the special issue argues that more research into NGOs’ translation and interpreting practices and policies is required to better understand these organisations and their influence on global society. The introduction engages with what NGO practitioners and professional translators have said on current challenges in translating and interpreting in the context of NGOs, and what this implies for future research and training in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Lastly, it reflects on the use of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding NGOs as global organisations and discusses the contribution that Translation and Interpreting Studies could make to other disciplines that aim to gain new insights on these organisations

The translation challenges of international NGOs: professional and non-professional translation at Amnesty International

In the current climate where the legitimacy of Western-based international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) is increasingly put under pressure, some NGOs have started to change their approach to translation, often as a consequence of structural changes within the organisation. This article focuses on the translation challenges of one such organisation, namely Amnesty International, and how it has aimed to deal with these. Drawing on ethnographic data, it describes the mission of Amnesty’s Language Resource Centre, which aims to support translation at Amnesty into a variety of languages. The article reveals some of the tensions between the use of professional translators, particularly for languages such as French, Spanish and Arabic, and the continued reliance of smaller Amnesty offices on volunteer translators. It demonstrates that despite the trend towards professionalisation, volunteer translation continues to represent a significant portion of Amnesty’s translation work

Transformation through translation:translation policies at Amnesty International

International non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are powerful political players who aim to influence global society. In order to be effective on a global scale, they must communicate their goals and achievements in different languages. Translation and translation policy play an essential role here. Despite NGOs’ important position in politics and society, not much is known about how these organisations, who often have limited funds available, organise their translation work. This study aims to contribute to Translation Studies, and more specifically to investigating institutional translation, by exploring translation policies at Amnesty International, one of the most successful and powerful human rights NGOs around the world. Translation policy is understood as comprising three components: translation management, translation practices, and translation beliefs, based on Spolsky’s study of language policy (2004). The thesis investigates how translation is organised and what kind of policies different Amnesty offices have in place, and how this is reflected in their translation products. The thesis thus also pursues how translation and translation policy impact on the organisation’s message and voice as it is spread around the world. An ethnographic approach is used for the analysis of various data sets that were collected during fieldwork. These include policy documents, guidelines on writing and translation, recorded interviews, e-mail correspondence, and fieldnotes. The thesis at first explores Amnesty’s global translation policy, and then presents the results of a comparative analysis of local translation policies at two concrete institutions: Amnesty International Language Resource Centre in Paris (AILRC-FR) and Amnesty International Vlaanderen (AIVL). A corpus of English source texts and Dutch (AIVL) and French (AILRC-FR) target texts are analysed. The findings of the analysis of translation policies and of the translation products are then combined to illustrate how translation impacts on Amnesty’s message and voice. The research results show that there are large differences in how translation is organised depending on the local office and the language(s), and that this also influences the way in which Amnesty’s message and voice are represented. For Dutch and French specifically, translation policies and translation products differ considerably. The thesis describes how these differences are often the result of different beliefs and assumptions relating to translation, and that staff members within Amnesty are not aware of the different conceptions of translation that exist within Amnesty International as a formal institution. Organising opportunities where translation can be discussed (meetings, workshops, online platforms) can help in reducing such differences. The thesis concludes by suggesting that an increased awareness of these issues will enable Amnesty to make more effective use of translation in its fight against human rights violations

‘These are all outside words’: Translating development discourse in NGOs’ projects in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi

This article discusses the challenges encountered by NGO staff when translating the discourse of international development into the local languages of low-income countries as part of their efforts to communicate with the communities with which they work and to deliver successful projects. Development discourse is characterised by the use of vague and complex English buzzwords, which are not directly translatable into other languages and carry culturally specific connotations. This issue has rarely been problematized in Development Studies or in Translation Studies. We address this gap by drawing on data from 69 semi-structured interviews with staff from international and Southern NGOs in Kyrgyzstan and Malawi. Participants were asked to explain how they translated development discourse when designing, delivering or evaluating development projects and to describe the linguistic and cultural challenges they encountered when doing so. They were also asked to evaluate the impact of translation and interpreting issues on project outcomes. Our findings indicate that poor translation of buzzwords can seriously compromise the ability of communities to understand the purpose of projects and to participate in them in a meaningful way. The findings also underline the value of using local interpreters to build understanding and trust between NGOs and communities

Local capacity building after crisis: the role of languages and translation in the work of development NGOs in Kyrgyzstan

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of languages and translation in the context of capacity building in NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. It argues that language barriers can impede local capacity building, while translation can help in overcoming some of the issues encountered

Translation as inclusion? An analysis of international NGOs’ translation policy documents

International NGOs (INGOs) are important agents in delivering the UN’s sustainable development agenda, but their linguistic practices have received little attention in the field of language policy and planning. This article aims to add new insights to the field by exploring the link between INGOs’ organisational value of inclusiveness and their institutional approaches to translation. It does so through a case study of Oxfam GB’s and Tearfund’s translation policy documents. The analysis reveals that the policy documents focus on written translation into a handful of lingua francas. In other words, they largely overlook the need for interpreting and translation from and into local languages. In addition, the policy documents do not make any overt links between principles of (linguistic) inclusiveness and the need for translation. The article summarises the advantages and drawbacks of creating a translation policy, and provides guidance on linking translation policy more overtly to values of inclusiveness

Translation practices in political institutions:a comparison of national, supranational, and non-governmental organisations

This article explores the settings and practices of translation at three types of political institutions, i.e. national, supranational, and non-governmental organisations. The three institutions are the translation service of the German Foreign Office, the translation department of the European Central Bank, and translation provision by the non-governmental organisation Amnesty International. The three case studies describe the specific translation practices in place at these institutions and illustrate some characteristic translation strategies. In this way, we reflect on how different translation practices can impact on translation agency and how these practices in turn are influenced by the type of institution and its organisational structure. The article also aims to explore to which extent the characteristics of collectivity, anonymity and standardisation, and of institutional translation as self-translation are applicable to the institutions under discussion

Listening, languages and the nature of knowledge and evidence: what we can learn from investigating ‘listening’ in NGOs

This chapter brings together reflections on listening in multiple languages from the field of development aid, ethnography and academic research in general. It draws on an AHRC-funded research project that sets out to investigate listening in the work of international UK-based development NGOs, who tend to present themselves as listening attentively to the voices of those they wish to empower. However, the aid field is hugely complex, with a variety of actors that require NGOs to ‘listen’ to them. By interrogating the listening of NGOs, this chapter leads us to reflect on our own listening as researchers, and makes us aware of the gaps in academic reflections on listening and the role of languages in listening processes. It proposes that allowing dialogue between researcher and researched, and critically re-examining our role as researchers can enhance conceptual and methodological developments for those working in multilingual settings

Linguistic hospitality and listening through interpreters: critical reflections and recommendations on linguistic power relationships in multilingual research

This chapter reflects on my experiences of conducting interviews with staff from development organisations in Kyrgyzstan about the role of languages and culture in their work. These thirty-four semistructured interviews, conducted in January 2018, were collected for a case study as part of a larger project that aimed to raise the profile of languages in the development sector, and particularly in contexts in which international NGOs claim to listen to their so-called beneficiaries. The theoretical concept of ‘listening’ was central to the project. In this chapter, I describe how I used the concepts of listening and of linguistic hospitality (Ricoeur 2006) to reflect on my own linguistic practices as a translation studies scholar, who visited Kyrgyzstan as an outsider from a privileged background and who did not speak the local languages but worked with an interpreter. I demonstrate that using these concepts helped me to gain insights into the personal, institutional and sociopolitical issues that influenced my linguistic choices and assumptions. To conclude, I offer practical recommendations for researchers that can help in designing, delivering and reporting on multilingual research in a more linguistically equitable way