International languages of management, therapy, marketing and advertising have their own jargon, specialized terminology and global standard phrases. In the development discourse, "sustainability", "rights based", "participatory" are some frequently used terms. The "right for children to participate" is among the development concepts that travel from an NGO in a Western country, to (in this case) youth and project workers in rural Ethiopia, and back to the donor - seemingly unaffected by the many local adaptations that the concept has undergone on the way. In the daily lives of village youth, "children's participation" is not an abstract universal right but a concrete strategy for managing their individual lives. The reports from the field to head office do not capture these local practices, but repeats the idealized, timeless and depersonalized versions of the concept. This book looks into some reasons for how and why this might happen. It provides insight to those interested in the complexities of development work. It also explores some aspects of transnational communication in an Ethiopian/Amhara context.
