Philippa Neave: The unexpected challenges of a country's first election
Philippa Neave: De oväntade utmaningarna med ett lands första val
Philippa Neave is senior advisor on the UN's Lexicon of Electoral Terminology. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
there's no word for it,
finns det inget ord för det,
we know what we're talking about.
vad vi talar om.
We have the vocabulary.
where democracy doesn't exist,
där det inte finns någon demokrati,
no words to describe the concepts
för att beskriva de företeelser
i ett demokratiskt samhälle?
of electoral assistance,
who goes around the world
som åker runt i världen
on countries that can't handle it."
i länder som inte kan hantera den.”
does not impose anything on anybody.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
deklaration om mänskliga rättigheter,
to choose who governs them.
vem som ska styra över dem.
information till allmänheten.
designing information campaigns
att utforma informationskampanjer
to participate or to vote
att ställa upp eller rösta
man registrerar sig,
campaign to reach out to women
en särskilt kampanj för kvinnor
because very often in this work,
för ofta i det här arbetet –
that I've been doing it
high levels of illiteracy,
av analfabetism.
it was in 2005,
on the same day.
are so incredibly difficult,
var så otroligt komplicerad
explaining two elections instead of one
var det ännu svårare
so many people wanted to take part,
för så många ville delta
which is the parliamentary elections.
vilket är parlamentsvalen.
we had even more candidates.
hade vi ännu fler kandidater.
a lot of symbols and things like that.
massor av symboler och annat.
in Southern Sudan.
who had never, of course, voted,
aldrig hade röstat,
high levels of illiteracy,
the size of Texas, more or less.
är ungefär lika stort som Texas.
where we landed the planes
där vi landade med planen
about what a box looked like.
om hur en valurna såg ut.
was obviously the way to go,
att använda verbal kommunikation,
by that enormous movement
av den enorma rörelse
there was Egypt, there was Yemen.
historical moment.
with the election commission,
about various aspects of the election,
that I hadn't actually heard before,
faktiskt inte hade hört förut,
I'd worked with Jordanians, Egyptians,
jordanier och egyptier
was this word "observer."
var ordet ”observatör”.
was talking about "mulahiz" in Arabic.
talade om ”mulahiz” på arabiska.
in a passive sort of sense,
på ett passivt sätt,
he was wearing a light blue shirt."
att han hade på sig en ljusblå skjorta.”
the shirt was light blue or not?
om skjortan var ljusblå eller inte?
by all kinds of treaties,
av fördrag av alla slag,
that control function in it.
of the fact that in Egypt,
att man i Egypten
which means "to follow."
vilket betyder ”att följa”.
followers of an election.
that's already accepted and in use,
är accepterad och används,
which means "a controller."
som betyder ”en kontrollant”.
for one concept. This is not good.
Det här är inte bra.
we thought perhaps it's our role
att det kanske är vår roll
that the words are understood
att orden blir förstådda,
of Electoral Terminology,"
of Electoral Terminology”
in eight different countries.
of everything you need to know
för allt man behöver veta
a democratic election.
ett demokratiskt val.
about what would be the appropriate word
som skulle vara det lämpligaste ordet
and that's part of the problem.
och det är delvis problemet.
that speak Arabic,
där man talar arabiska
that is used across the whole region
som används i hela regionen
to the next in day to day language and use
mellan länderna i vardagsspråket
och så vidare.
added layer of complication.
fully ripe, if you like,
riktigt moget, om du så vill,
new expressions.
och nya uttryck.
eight correspondents in the region.
åtta korrespondenter i regionen.
to harmonize or force harmonization.
eller påtvinga någon slags harmonisering.
understanding among people.
förståelsen bland vanligt folk.
the different expressions in use
uttrycken som används
it took three years to produce this
and took it actually into the field,
och tog med det ut på fältet,
in all these different countries,
i alla de olika länderna,
och finslipade utkastet,
in November 2014 in Cairo.
i november 2014 i Kairo.
We published 10,000 copies.
off the internet in PDF form.
cirka 3 000 gånger från internet.
that they've taken it up in Somalia.
att de ska börja använda den i Somalia.
a version of this in Somalia,
en version i Somalia,
for Electoral Management Bodies,
for Electoral Management Bodies,
built up a pan-Arab observation unit,
en panarabisk observationsenhet,
is quite high-pitched.
på ganska hög nivå.
are quite technical,
av termerna är ganska tekniska,
need to know at least a third of it.
förmodligen inte kunna ens en tredjedel.
of what we know as civic education.
av vad vi kallar samhällsorientering.
in that part of the world,
i den delen av världen,
the right of everybody
alla människors rätt
producing a work of reference
att göra ett referensverk
appar på telefonen,
that can be used now
som kan användas
about the Middle East.
om Mellanöstern.
We hear terrorism.
Vi hör om terrorism.
and all this horrible negative news
fruktansvärda negativa nyheter
the people, the everyday people, thinking?
Vad tänker vanligt folk?
let's give them the words.
låt oss ge dem orden.
with the knowledge tools
kunskapsverktyg de kan använda
does not need to be silent.
måste inte vara tyst.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Philippa Neave - Electoral consultantPhilippa Neave is senior advisor on the UN's Lexicon of Electoral Terminology.
Why you should listen
Philippa Neave specializes in electoral communications and education, devising information and training campaigns for voters and candidates in emerging democracies. Since 2005 she has worked in electoral assistance as a consultant for the United Nations, developing strategies to inform people on their voting rights, with particular emphasis on reaching women and people with low levels of literacy. She has worked on elections in Afghanistan, Iraq UAE, Jordan, Turkey, Cambodia, Madagascar, Southern Sudan and Tunisia.
An Arabic speaker, Neave initiated and conducted a three-year project to produce the first Arabic lexicon of electoral terminology. With close to 500 entries, the tri-lingual (Arabic, English and French) lexicon provides clear and accurate explanations of key concepts and terms in the field of elections. Neave's approach included a groundbreaking effort to account for Arabic language variations across the region in eight participating countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen.
Neave has always worked with words. For 15 years she was a reporter specialising in the Middle East. After a year and a half in Cairo, she became a foreign correspondent for an international features syndicate in based Rome, Paris and New York. Later, in London, she was chief editor of a magazine on arts and culture and in Paris after that, she was chief editor of European Press Network. She then left the news business and worked as Middle East Director for a British charity, based in Beirut for five years.
Her interest in democracy building goes back to the time when soon after leaving university, she served for several years as deputy Secretary General of the Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation, organising and participating in the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Dialogue.
Born in 1960 in France to an English father and a Danish mother, Neave grew up bilingual. She studied Arabic at Durham University in the UK and obtained a BA degree. She speaks seven languages, including Arabic, and is based in Paris.
Philippa Neave | Speaker | TED.com