Philippa Neave: The unexpected challenges of a country's first election
فيليبا نيف: التحديات غير المتوقَّعة لدولةٍ في انتخاباتها الأولى
Philippa Neave is senior advisor on the UN's Lexicon of Electoral Terminology. Full bio
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there's no word for it,
فلا توجد كلمة تدل عليه،
we know what we're talking about.
فنحن ندرك عمّا نتحدث عنه.
We have the vocabulary.
where democracy doesn't exist,
التي لا توجد بها ديمقراطية،
no words to describe the concepts
للتعبير عن المفاهيم
أي مجتمع ديمقراطي؟
of electoral assistance,
who goes around the world
الذين يجوبون العالم
on countries that can't handle it."
غير القادرة على التعامل بها"
does not impose anything on anybody.
على أي شخص.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
لحقوق الإنسان لسنة 1948
to choose who governs them.
designing information campaigns
to participate or to vote
أو التصويت من قبل
campaign to reach out to women
خاصة لتوعية النساء
because very often in this work,
لأنني في أحيان كثيرة،
that I've been doing it
high levels of illiteracy,
it was in 2005,
هوأنه تم في عام 2005،
on the same day.
في اليوم ذاته.
are so incredibly difficult,
في العملية اللوجستية،
explaining two elections instead of one
انتخابيتين بدلًا من واحدة
الاقتراع الحقيقية،
so many people wanted to take part,
لوجود أعداد كبيرة كانت تود المشاركة،
which is the parliamentary elections.
الانتخابات البرلمانية.
we had even more candidates.
عدد أكبر من المرشحين.
a lot of symbols and things like that.
وأشياء من هذا القبيل.
in Southern Sudan.
who had never, of course, voted,
لم يسبق لهم التصويت من قبل،
high levels of illiteracy,
the size of Texas, more or less.
بحجم ولاية تكساس تقريبًا.
من الطرق المرصوفة،
where we landed the planes
about what a box looked like.
عن شكل الصندوق الانتخابي.
was obviously the way to go,
هوالأسلوب الأمثل للتعامل،
by that enormous movement
على إثر هذه الحركة الكبيرة
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,
لم أكن قد سمعتها من قبل،
I'd worked with Jordanians, Egyptians,
was this word "observer."
was talking about "mulahiz" in Arabic.
عن "ملاحظ" بالعربية.
in a passive sort of sense,
he was wearing a light blue shirt."
لونه أزرق فاتح."
the shirt was light blue or not?
لونه أزرق فاتح أم لا؟
by all kinds of treaties,
that control function in it.
of the fact that in Egypt,
which means "to follow."
والذي يعني "أن تتابع"
followers of an election.
للعملية الانتخابية.
that's already accepted and in use,
which means "a controller."
for one concept. This is not good.
هذا ليس شيئًا جيدًا.
we thought perhaps it's our role
that the words are understood
of Electoral Terminology,"
لمصطلحات الانتخابات،"
in eight different countries.
of everything you need to know
a democratic election.
about what would be the appropriate word
and that's part of the problem.
وهذا جزء من المشكلة.
that speak Arabic,
that is used across the whole region
to the next in day to day language and use
المستخدمة من دولة لأخرى
added layer of complication.
fully ripe, if you like,
إذا جاز التعبير،
new expressions.
eight correspondents in the region.
to harmonize or force harmonization.
أوالإجبار على التواؤم.
understanding among people.
the different expressions in use
التعابير المختلفة المُستخدَمة
it took three years to produce this
أنه تطلب منا إصداره ثلاث سنوات
and took it actually into the field,
بأخذها معنا فعليّا لساحة العمل،
in all these different countries,
in November 2014 in Cairo.
في نوفمبر 2014 في القاهرة.
We published 10,000 copies.
فقمنا بطباعة 10,000 نسخة.
off the internet in PDF form.
من الانترنت بصيغة الPDF.
that they've taken it up in Somalia.
بالموافقة عليه في الصومال.
a version of this in Somalia,
for Electoral Management Bodies,
للإدارات الانتخابية التي أُنشئت حديثًا،
built up a pan-Arab observation unit,
للمراقبة تحت اسم أمانة شؤون الانتخابات،
is quite high-pitched.
ذا مستوى لغوي عال.
are quite technical,
من المصطلحات التقنية،
need to know at least a third of it.
لا يحتاج لمعرفة ثلث هذه المصطلحات.
of what we know as civic education.
ما نسميه نحن التربية المدنية.
in that part of the world,
في هذا الجزء من العالم،
the right of everybody
producing a work of reference
في إنتاج عمل ذي أهمية
باستخدام تطبيقات الهواتف،
that can be used now
about the Middle East.
We hear terrorism.
and all this horrible negative news
وكل هذه الأخبارالسلبية الشنيعة
the people, the everyday people, thinking?
الأشخاص العاديون؟
let's give them the words.
with the knowledge tools
does not need to be silent.
أن تظل صامتة.
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