Best Practices and a Larger West Africa
I was fortunate to be present for the Preconference on Adolescent Health organized as part of the 2nd WAHO Good Practices Forum in October.
Although my academic and professional focus has largely been on environmental sustainability and community development, I have also peripherally been involved in worked done in the area of reproductive health for many years. So, I jumped at the opportunity to gain some more experience and visit Cote d’ Ivoire, a country I had never been to before.
It turned out to be a good decision because I learned two significant lessons.
The first lesson I learned from that trip was that there is a huge portion of West Africa that I have been missing out on because of my lack of French language proficiency.
There are ten (10!) primarily Francophone countries in West Africa. In addition, there are two (2!) Lusophone countries that I can’t even approach because I have zero Portuguese proficiency. I now know first-hand that anytime you’re given the opportunity to learn a new language as a child or adolescent you should take it.
Francophone West Africa has so much to offer. The large numbers of European expatriates and vacationing retirees I observed should be enough evidence that there is a lot for English-speaking West Africans to uncover in French-speaking West Africa. I believe there’s also research that indicates learning new languages boosts thinking skills.
The second lesson I learned from the trip was the importance of documenting processes, successes, and failures.
The main aim of the preconference was to promote the dissemination of best practices in adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) programmes across the region. The West African Health Organization (WAHO) and Independent Best Practices (IBP) Initiative’s AYSRH teams did a wonderful job putting together a sample of international high impact practices in educating girls, preventing early pregnancy, and improving the SRH of young people.
With such information, other community based organizations and development foundations will spend less time reinventing the wheel and more time multiplying effective strategies. And if these organizations are proficient in multiple languages, they can tap into an even larger pool of knowledge and experience.
Upon reflection, I realized that we are missing opportunities on all sides of the language barrier if we do not acquire the ability to communicate across borders. We largely expect the Francophone and Lusophone countries to do business in English when, on the other side, Anglophone countries can also learn French and Portuguese and demonstrate a willingness to cooperate as equals.
A new acquaintance told me that in the European Union, anyone speaking in an official capacity had to speak in both English and French, starting in one language and finishing in the other. While it can seem tedious, I think it demonstrates solidarity. At a recent event, I witnessed the MC greet the guests in about 10 languages and I think he won the audience over to his side with that gesture.
Personally, I dealt with the language barrier by relying on official translators at the event and using the Google Translate app, but it was far from a perfect solution. So, I’m actually paying more attention to my translations and using it to get a grasp of some of the basic phrases and relying on my new Francophone connections to correct me on my grammatical style.
Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to recommend it if you’ve enjoyed reading it.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to leave a response. I’d like to hear from you!
You can find more of my photographs on Instagram.
