A Process to Guide Decision Making for Development Activities in Language Programs

"Should SIL language teams become involved in development activities?" This article offers a series of questions to assist language teams and their administrators in determining how involved they should become. The choice is theirs. SIL's philosophy and policy statements that are a part of this article provide the underlying structures for making those decisions.

Contents

1. Principles for intercultural community work
   • Principle 1: Start where the people are.
   • Principle 2: Build relationships; then introduce new ideas, showing how they meet identified needs.
   • Principle 3: Keep projects simple.
   • Principle 4: Involve as many community people as possible in all activities from the start.
   • Principle 5: Train people close to their home communities.
   • Principle 6: Train in locally acceptable ways (e.g. methods, facilities).
   • Principle 7: Train trainers who can train others.
   • Principle 8: Involve local leadership.
   • Principle 9: Cooperate with governments.
   • Principle 10: Encourage interdependent relationships vs. dependent or totally independent relationships.
2. Personal references
3. Development policy of SIL
   1. Community development
   2. Program focus
   3. Methods
   4. Ethical concerns
   5. Special concerns
   6. Guidelines for program development
   7. Funding
   8. Evaluation

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