Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding in the report by Translators Without Borders The Language Lesson: What we’ve learned about communicating with Rohingya Refugees, published in November 2018, that international aid workers have over-estimated the number of people who understand Rakhine and Burmese which has exacerbated the exclusion of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh; and what assessment they have made of the impact of such estimates on their co-funded project in Myanmar.

The UK supports the overall recommendations in the “The Language Lesson” report, which was co-funded by DFID. Since the report was published, access to reliable information has improved according to the latest GroundTruth Solutions survey with Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar. As a follow-up to the report, DFID has supported Translators Without Borders to undertake an innovative Myanmar/Bangladesh cross-border study to examine the Rohingya language in-depth and analyse how language barriers impact access to services and intercommunal relations in Rakhine State and Cox’s Bazar.

DFID will consider with relevant implementing partners how the findings can inform future programme and policy development. DFID has funded Translators Without Borders to engage with humanitarian actors to raise understanding of the language barriers to address needs of Rohingya. This has included training of interpreters, field workers, surveyors and management staff, and the production and dissemination of a glossary of key humanitarian terms in Rohingya language.