Can you make [non]sense of jargon?
This is article breakes down UN jargon for all those confused by NGO speak.
Are you engineering visionary architecture for children’s rights or engaged in cross-media mind-sharing? If you, like us, have no idea what this means, and often find yourself baffled by the impenetrable expressions of NGO speak, have a go at our jargon quiz below.
Disclaimer: some answers are rhetorical, some tongue-in-cheek, others factual, therefore none should be taken seriously — not even the jargon itself.
1. Road map
a. A plan or strategy for achieving a particular goal
b. The defunct marketing name of Google Street View
c. An actual map
2. Critical strategy
a. A strategy that’s about to explode
b. A plan of action that’s considered very important
c. A fancier way of saying the above
3. Bedrock of national planning
a. Reading white papers on a really hard mattress
b. Subaquatic parliamentary meetings
c. The fundamental principles on which domestic policies are based
4. Building knowledge
a. AKA knowledge building
b. Contributing to public understanding, e.g. by writing a report
c. Reading a book
5. Enhancing awareness
a. Building knowledge
b. A way to avoid writing ‘raising awareness’ too many times
c. A mutation which gives us telekinetic powers
6. High impact employees
a. Staff members who can take a punch
b. Employees who perform in-office aerobics
c. No idea (we couldn’t be bothered to look this one up)
7. Girl child
a. A girl
b. A child
c. All of the above
8. Good data
a. Well-behaved information
b. Bad data’s better behaved sibling
c. Data that’s well documented, verifiable and reliable
9. Social budgeting
a. When state budgets allow for society’s needs to be addressed
b. A nationalistic process for deciding which people are worth it
c. A tax initiative to save government spending on poor communities
10. Catalyst for action
a. A chemical reaction that sends people running
b. Something that provokes or speeds up change, reform or development
c. The UN’s favourite expression