"We must avoid escalating tensions and enable peaceful discussions with different stakeholders at the community level."

- Kader, an activity participant

Language plays a critical role in mitigating conflict because using the right words is essential in efforts to foster peace. This is especially true in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso, where in many cases government-appointed officials do not speak the region's local languages. Officials often request for residents in the region to serve as volunteer interpreters to facilitate communication between them, the appointed local authorities, and community members. However, these volunteers are often youth with little to no formal interpreter training who are then exposed to high pressure situations where the wrong word choice could provoke violence.

Between March 2019 and September 2020, USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives’ (OTI) Burkina Faso Regional Program (BFRP) engaged Cabinet Mory Prestations, a private interpretation company, to conduct skills training for 341 community-level individuals serving as volunteer interpreters in the region. Participants benefited from a five-day intensive course that incorporated practical and role-playing exercises focused on word choice, interpretation ethics, non-verbal communication tactics, and other conflict mitigation measures. 

The first offering of the training series taught 24 community interpreters tactics to improve interactions between the authorities and community members, highlighting the interpreters' important role as peace facilitators in insecure environments. One month after the training, the program conducted interviews with authorities which revealed that the trained interpreters’ abilities had improved and the authorities had more confidence in them.

A local official stated, "There was no guarantee that what they were reporting to us was correct. Knowing that our interpreters benefited from a training that included interpretation ethics, we are now more confident, and we have indeed noticed an improvement of the translations." 

In July 2019, following the first activity's success, USAID/OTI’s BFRP selected and trained 20 additional interpreters who worked with authorities across the Sahel region. During this offering, Cabinet Mory Prestations also coached five beneficiaries from the first activity to lead a call-in radio broadcast in the town of Dori to showcase the interpreters’ role and their contributions to mitigating conflicts. The speakers used local languages during the 50-minute broadcast to emphasize that serving as interpreters for security forces or local authorities does not mean they are informers or that they contribute to the enforcement of false accusations. During the radio show, community members talked openly about their perceptions of the situation and then reported better understanding of the interpreters’ positions. "I hope that other interpreters will have the chance to be trained because when you are not aware of the requirements and ethics of interpretation, you may put communities in danger," said Moussa, a volunteer interpreter who has provided crucial interpretation for government authorities for five years. He has helped facilitate judicial hearings, disputes between community members, and civil document authentication requests.

USAID/OTI’s BFRP identified and trained volunteer interpreters in the Sahel from the December 2019 to September 2020 timeframe too, after finding it necessary to hold additional interpretation training given the large number of people the authorities call upon to interpret for them. Therefore, the program collaborated with Cabinet Mory Prestations and local government authorities again to conduct a third activity which trained around 300 volunteer interpreters, all of whom are frequently called upon to serve as interlocutors between community members, security forces, local and international NGOs, and public service providers. As part of this offering, the grantee produced a glossary of key terms with word equivalents in French and three major local languages to help beneficiaries locate and use the right words, depending on the situation of the interpretation. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a four-month suspension of this third activity but the program still successfully completed 12 five-day training sessions for a total of 297 volunteer interpreters from eight communes across the Sahel region. 

Following the training, beneficiaries affirmed that the training positively improved their interpretation skills and the services they render, as well as increased their chances to gain new, future translation opportunities. Specifically, one activity participant named Ousmane spoke about his increased confidence in translating some embarrassing situations.

He explained, "My best takeaway is that although the interpreter should be faithful in transmitting the message, s/he should not translate insults or rude words but rather find a way to express the dissatisfaction of the speaker.”

Kader, a volunteer interpreter working in the role for more than eight years, further elaborated on the benefits of the trainings. He said that after the training, he applied what he learned to provide clear translation to community members and internally displaced persons, which helped ensure mutual understanding between government authorities and humanitarian health providers.

"The training helped us better understand the context in which we are working. It made us see our strengths and weaknesses. We understood that as interpreters, we must avoid escalating tensions. Instead, we have to enable peaceful discussions with different stakeholders at the community level,” he said.  

The improvements in conflict mitigation and general interpretation skills as a result of the trainings also resulted in continuing education in some places. Aware that they could be stronger if they gathered together, some of the Oudalan Province interpreters, mainly from the town of Gorom-Gorom, launched an interpretation association called Association des Interprètes et Traducteurs de l'Oudalan. The association aims to continue sharing and reinforcing the common values and skills that the interpreters acquired through the training sessions. The creation of this association reinforces the activities’ success, because they not only improved the interpreters' skills and enhanced understanding between local authorities and community members, they also enhanced participants’ understanding of the importance of their role as interpreters, and many are now taking steps toward assigning more value to the trade. 

https://www.usaid.gov/stabilization-and-transitions/burkina-faso 

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Interpreter training conducted in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso
USAID/OTI/BFRP
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