Pop quiz: What does it mean when cluster meetings are held for a refugee camp?

You may have answered something along the lines of it being a meeting of humanitarian groups to coordinate their work around a specific need, like water. But, if you consult the #developmentdictonary, you'd find it's defined as: "definitive proof that hell is other people."

Aid worker Michael Kleniman started tweeting out a series of common phrases that make up the jargon-filled humanitarian sector with more honest definitions. A social entrepreneur, for example, is "one who sees poverty as a business opportunity."

The exercise manages to serve as a critique for both jargon and some of the trends and tendencies in the international do-gooder sector. It is a tad snarky, but also entirely honest. It may be uncomfortable that the responsibility to protect is a phrase oft-evoked and infrequently acted on.

So take a look at the list and join in with missing entries and alternative definitions for the #developmentdictionary.

Editorial

Demand Equity

Deciphering Aid-speak using #DevelopmentDictonary

By Tom Murphy