A little girl skipping rope on a roof top inspired me today. As I was overlooking the houses and buildings from my small seating area on the roof, I noticed her skipping rope amongst the rubbles left on the roof of an adjoining house. I quietly witnessed her cadence and was stricken by the familiarity of her skipping rope. This very same contraption also managed to keep me quite busy in my pre-teens. The skipping rope is in fact quite a remarkable toy. It not only triggers a consistent outcome - that of girls skipping rope - but it also brings a certain amount of enjoyment; which brought me back to my work in Afghanistan
The international development vocabulary sometimes falls short of promoting mutual understanding. Both the legal and medical professions have their dictionary of special terminology. It might be equally of service to introduce an “international development dictionary” to standardize communication and promote understanding across territorial boundaries.
For example, the words “capacity building” appear in almost every document produced by international consultants; every log frame designed by delivering entities; and every terms of reference crafted by international donors. It has been overused, abused and confused for everything that has anything remotely in common with training, growth, progress and improvement. Hence, decoding the term “capacity building” has not only become a project in itself, but it has also broadened the “do to” list to something that includes everything that never ends. There are other words such as modalities, infrastructure, institution, support, commitment, systematic, that can be just as confusing to all involved.
As with the skipping rope, an international development dictionary could promote understanding, standards and applications, and possibly trigger a reliable and consistent set of actions . Both the dictionary and the skipping rope through clarity and simplicity would have similar effects: bring about a consistent set of activities and similar outcomes – across oceans and across cultures. Something to ponder as I end my day on the roof top…
The international development vocabulary sometimes falls short of promoting mutual understanding. Both the legal and medical professions have their dictionary of special terminology. It might be equally of service to introduce an “international development dictionary” to standardize communication and promote understanding across territorial boundaries.
For example, the words “capacity building” appear in almost every document produced by international consultants; every log frame designed by delivering entities; and every terms of reference crafted by international donors. It has been overused, abused and confused for everything that has anything remotely in common with training, growth, progress and improvement. Hence, decoding the term “capacity building” has not only become a project in itself, but it has also broadened the “do to” list to something that includes everything that never ends. There are other words such as modalities, infrastructure, institution, support, commitment, systematic, that can be just as confusing to all involved.
As with the skipping rope, an international development dictionary could promote understanding, standards and applications, and possibly trigger a reliable and consistent set of actions . Both the dictionary and the skipping rope through clarity and simplicity would have similar effects: bring about a consistent set of activities and similar outcomes – across oceans and across cultures. Something to ponder as I end my day on the roof top…
No comments:
Post a Comment