Translators without Borders

Language data

There is little information available on the languages crisis-affected people speak and understand. Humanitarians often develop communication strategies without reliable data on literacy, languages spoken, or preferred means of communication. The result too often is that crisis-affected people struggle to communicate with humanitarian organizations in a language they understand. Women, children, older people, and people with disabilities are often at the greatest disadvantage because they are less likely to understand international languages and lingua francas.

TWB’s Language Data Initiative addresses those issues and provides important resources for humanitarians. It supports humanitarian organizations to develop language-informed programs and communication strategies.

Click on a country on the map below to see language data, resources, and maps that we have available for that country. This map will update as new data is published in the future.

There are four components of this initiative:
1. Curate existing language datasets and format them to be easily used in humanitarian contexts. These will be hosted on the Humanitarian Data Exchange.
2. Develop tools and resources to standardize language and communication indicators in humanitarian monitoring and evaluation.
3. Conduct research and pilot innovative technology solutions to address language barriers in data collection efforts.
4. Partner with humanitarian organizations to develop targeted communication strategies that consider language and communication data.

This project is partly supported by a partnership between Translators without Borders and the Centre for Translation Studies at University College London. Funding was provided by Research England’s Higher Education Innovation Fund, managed by UCL Innovation & Enterprise.

For questions about the Language Data Initiative, please contact: [email protected]

Tools and resources:

Blog: Language data fills a critical gap for humanitarians

This blog highlights the first efforts to provide openly available language data for humanitarian contexts in nine countries. The datasets are the result of a partnership between Translators without Borders and University College London.

global literacy map by gender

Global literacy map by gender

This map highlights the gender difference in adult literacy in individual countries. Women's literacy rates are often lower than men's. Orange shading indicates countries where male literacy rates are higher than female literacy rates. Blue shading indicates the few countries where female literacy rates are higher than male literacy rates. 

Why we need to collect data on the languages of crisis-affected people (PDF)

This infographic highlights the challenges we face when we fail to incorporate language data into humanitarian decision making. In order to address those challenges, we propose four key questions to include in all humanitarian data collection efforts.

MSNA language data can help humanitarians communicate better with affected people (PDF)

This brief summarizes key language and communication findings from the 2019 Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment in northeast Nigeria. It illustrates the potential for large-scale surveys of this kind to fill critical language and communication information gaps throughout the humanitarian sector.

Yahaya Tijani (TWB Kanuri Team Lead) conducting comprehension research. GGSS camp, Monguno, Borno State, Nigeria. Photo by: Eric DeLuca, Translators

Blog: When words fail: audio recording for verification in multilingual surveys

This blog discusses the potential to use audio to confirm consent and verify the accuracy of recorded survey results in multilingual environments. It focuses on a pilot project between Translators without Borders and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Rapid guide to localizing and translating survey tools

This short guide helps humanitarian and development agencies avoid language and cultural biases when designing and administering surveys. This guide was developed by Translators without Borders and People in Need. It is available on the IndiKit website in English, French, and Portuguese.

The Words Between Us: How well do enumerators understand the terminology used in humanitarian surveys?

This report demonstrates that language is not a routine consideration in survey design. It concludes that enumerators often do not understand the words they must translate in surveys.

Putting language on the map in the European Refugee Response

This report highlights the challenges associated with not having reliable data on language in humanitarian crises. It focuses on assessments conducted in Greece, Italy, and Turkey and develops a series of recommendations which went on to form the basis of the TWB Language Data Initiative.

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