Philippa Neave: The unexpected challenges of a country's first election
Philippa Neave: Les défis inattendus des premières élections d'un pays
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,
il n'y a pas de mot pour la nommer
pour une chose,
we know what we're talking about.
nous savons de quoi nous parlons.
We have the vocabulary.
un bureau de vote, un bulletin de vote.
where democracy doesn't exist,
où la démocratie n'existe pas,
no words to describe the concepts
pour décrire les concepts
une société démocratique ?
of electoral assistance,
leurs premières élections.
who goes around the world
qui vont partout dans le monde
on countries that can't handle it."
à des pays qui ne peuvent pas la gérer. »
does not impose anything on anybody.
n'imposent rien à personne.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Universelle des Droits de l'Homme de 1948,
to choose who governs them.
de choisir qui les gouverne.
dans la sensibilisation du public.
designing information campaigns
des campagnes d'information
to participate or to vote
de participer ou de voter
et comment s'inscrire ;
il est important de participer.
campaign to reach out to women
spécifiques pour atteindre les femmes
Même les personnes handicapées.
because very often in this work,
car, souvent dans ce travail,
that I've been doing it
high levels of illiteracy,
un taux d'alphabétisation faible
it was in 2005,
on the same day.
deux élections le même jour.
are so incredibly difficult,
était incroyablement complexe,
de faire comme cela.
explaining two elections instead of one
qu’il y avait deux élections au lieu d'une
so many people wanted to take part,
car trop de gens voulaient participer.
which is the parliamentary elections.
les élections parlementaires.
we had even more candidates.
nous avions encore plus de candidats.
de bulletins de vote,
du conseil provincial.
a lot of symbols and things like that.
beaucoup de symboles.
in Southern Sudan.
au Sud-Soudan.
ce fut une tout autre histoire.
who had never, of course, voted,
qui, bien sûr, n'avaient jamais voté
high levels of illiteracy,
un taux d'alphabétisation très faible
the size of Texas, more or less.
qui fait plus ou moins la taille du Texas.
where we landed the planes
sur lequel les avions atterrissaient
about what a box looked like.
à quoi ressemblait une urne.
was obviously the way to go,
utiliser la communication verbale
by that enormous movement
par cet énorme mouvement
there was Egypt, there was Yemen.
historical moment.
très, très important.
with the election commission,
about various aspects of the election,
aspects de l'élection,
that I hadn't actually heard before,
que je n'avais jamais entendus.
I'd worked with Jordanians, Egyptians,
les Jordaniens, les Égyptiens
was this word "observer."
était le mot « observateur ».
was talking about "mulahiz" in Arabic.
parlait de « mulahiz » en arabe.
in a passive sort of sense,
dans un sens passif,
he was wearing a light blue shirt."
qu'il porte une chemise bleu clair. »
the shirt was light blue or not?
que la chemise était bleu clair ?
d'un observateur d'électoral.
by all kinds of treaties,
par tous un tas de traités,
that control function in it.
of the fact that in Egypt,
which means "to follow."
qui signifie « suivre ».
followers of an election.
des suiveurs d'élection.
that's already accepted and in use,
déjà accepté et en usage
which means "a controller."
qui signifie « contrôleur ».
for one concept. This is not good.
pour un concept, ce n'était pas bon.
we thought perhaps it's our role
que c'était peut-être notre rôle
that the words are understood
étaient compris
dans toute la région arabe.
of Electoral Terminology,"
de terminologie électorale »
in eight different countries.
dans huit pays différents.
of everything you need to know
de tout ce qu’il faut savoir
a democratic election.
avec des collègues arabes
about what would be the appropriate word
sur le mot dont l'usage
and that's part of the problem.
la richesse de la langue arabe.
that speak Arabic,
that is used across the whole region
dans toute la région,
to the next in day to day language and use
quotidienne varient,
les expressions courantes, etc.
added layer of complication.
fully ripe, if you like,
complètement mûr, si on veut,
new expressions.
faisaient leur apparition.
eight correspondents in the region.
huit correspondants dans la région.
dans notre pays. »
to harmonize or force harmonization.
ou forcer l'harmonisation.
understanding among people.
la compréhension entre les gens.
the different expressions in use
les différentes expressions utilisées
it took three years to produce this
ce lexique a pris trois ans à produire
and took it actually into the field,
l'avons apporté sur place,
les commissions électorales
in all these different countries,
in November 2014 in Cairo.
en novembre 2014 au Caire.
We published 10,000 copies.
nous avons publié 10 000 exemplaires.
off the internet in PDF form.
3 000 téléchargements du PDF sur internet.
that they've taken it up in Somalia.
que le lexique s’exporte en Somalie.
a version of this in Somalia,
une version en somalien
for Electoral Management Bodies,
des Organisations de Gestion Électorale,
d'observation électorale pan-arabe
built up a pan-Arab observation unit,
is quite high-pitched.
est d'un niveau assez élevé.
are quite technical,
sont assez techniques,
need to know at least a third of it.
besoin d'en connaître que les deux tiers.
of what we know as civic education.
de ce que nous appelons éducation civique.
de notre éducation scolaire.
in that part of the world,
dans cette partie du monde
the right of everybody
producing a work of reference
à produire un ouvrage de référence
via des applications téléphoniques,
that can be used now
peuvent être utilisés
à la population
dans leur propre langue.
about the Middle East.
mauvaises nouvelles sur le Moyen-Orient,
We hear terrorism.
and all this horrible negative news
ces horribles nouvelles négatives
the people, the everyday people, thinking?
c’est ce que pensent les gens ordinaires.
let's give them the words.
donnons-leur les mots.
a besoin de savoir.
with the knowledge tools
les outils de connaissance
does not need to be silent.
n'a pas à être silencieuse.
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