MELINCO Report: Linguistic mediation for development cooperation

Abstract

Introduction: The "Linguistic mediation for development cooperation" (MELINCO: 2019-2020) project is focussed on protecting linguistics rights in development cooperation through quality linguistic mediation between non-governmental development cooperation organisations (hereinafter referred to as NGDO) and users and recipients of their social cooperation activities. MELINCO is funded by the Xunta de Galicia's Directorate-General for External Relations and the European Union through its call for research in development cooperation within the framework of the UN's 2030 Agenda. It is coordinated by the University of Vigo (multidisciplinary academic research team: translation and interpreting, sociology, anthropology and pedagogy), with participation from the universities of A Coruña, Alicante, Granada, Jaume I (Castellón) and Trás-os- Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal). MELINCO firstly aims to identify any linguistic and cultural barriers that may exist between the NGDO staff and the foreign migrant population they assist, by paying special attention to standard practices and possible linguistic rights violation of the persons assisted and thereafter identify the training needs in interpreter-mediated professional linguistic mediation. The plan was to create the following resources after the (oral and written) translation needs had been detected: 1) Specialised training in oral linguistic mediation (interpreting) for NGDO staff by taking into account the research findings in this report; 2) A good practices guide for working with interpreters in the third sector, taking into account previous experiences: research findings and experience in development of relevant training; and 3) Culturally adapted translations of texts provided by participating NGDOs, mostly used in their social projects to assist people. This research project therefore has a clear applicability: the elimination of linguistic and cultural barriers experienced (during NGDO assistance) by these most vulnerable persons. The report provides a comparative analysis of the results obtained after analysing the activity carried out by the following two connected groups: NGDO technical staff, and translators & interpreters...