by Philip Harding-Esch
On 5 February 2025, the ‘kick-off’ webinar was held for the new LDAN network, which attracted over 100 interested colleagues from around the world.
The Language and Development Advocacy Network (LDAN) is a new worldwide network of researchers, policymakers, and actors on the ground who are interested in the role of languages and communication in sustainable development worldwide.
LDAN is building on the legacy of the Language & Development Conferences (LDCs), which ran from 1993 to 2019 – and looking to the future.
A group of the former Trustees of the LDCs decided to seek to broaden participation to involve a wider range of partners and participants which is more representative and diverse, across different areas of expertise in the different regions of the world, to steer this work towards its next stages.
This has led to this collaboration with the Global Coalition for Language Rights who has been leading in this area.
So what is LDAN all about, and why now?
Building on the legacy of the Language and Development Conferences
Between 1993 and 2019, thirteen LDCs took place, in South East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, and Africa.
These conferences grew in importance, playing a unique role in bringing together established academics, early career researchers, policymakers, governments, international organisations and grassroots stakeholders.
Each conference chose a specific theme and produced a publication of selected proceedings, which today form a valuable collection charting the evolution of language and development discourse over the last 30 years.
Later conferences were typically sponsored by the British Council and co-organised with UNESCO, regional organisations such as ACALAN in Africa, Ministries and universities in the host country, and international organisations such as SIL, UNICEF, USAID and Save The Children. The final conference in 2019 was held concurrently with UNESCO Bangkok’s Inclusion, Mobility and Multilingual Education (IMMLE) Conference.
How discourse has changed
The LDCs were originally a response to the needs of English language learning and teaching within development projects. However, discussion in the LDCs quickly evolved to focus on recognising all languages and multilingualism in education and also in wider development.
This is mapped out by Hywel Coleman, former Trustee of the LDCs, in his 2017 paper which is essential reading.
The LDCs have progressed from an original stance of celebration to a much more questioning position. Recent conferences have been more likely to take into account issues such as human rights, social disintegration and discrimination in terms of gender, ethnicity and language background. This is something to be pleased about. But we must avoid a “new complacency” and we must continue to ask difficult questions about everything that is done in the name of language and development.
Hywel Coleman (2017): Milestones in language planning and development aid. Current Issues in Language Planning.
At the conference I organised in 2017 in Dakar, it was clear how far the language and development discourse had grown in scope.
The conference explicitly discussed language across the entire development agenda (the Sustainable Development Goals) with a particular focus on education (SDG4), economic growth (SDG8) and peace/justice/strong institutions (SDG16).
This included several papers on ‘language rights’ – including equitable access to education, health and – very literally – justice and democracy.
A significant event at the conference was the launch of the British Council’s position paper English language and medium of instruction in basic education in low- and middle-income countries: A British Council perspective. This positions ‘English in mother tongue-based multilingual education, and seeks to prevent misconceptions arising about the British Council seeking to promote English over mother tongue’:
English is best served through strengthening the teaching of English as a subject. Therefore, English as the medium of instruction at the primary school level in low- or middle-income countries is not always beneficial nor is it a policy or practice we support.
The conference was also run bilingually (in French and English) and included the official parliamentary interpreters of Senegal who provided selected interpretation into all six of the indigenous languages recognised in the Senegalese parliament (Wolof, Seereer, Pulaar, Mandinka, Soninke and Jola).
Why language and development is important: The relevance of an LDAN
Since the final LDC in 2019, progress towards the SDGs has reversed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and new technology, according to UNESCO. Data shows children whose language is not the medium of instruction have fallen behind furthest in their education in this period, and that children who do not speak the language of instruction drop out of school at the highest rates.
Yet despite the evidence, there is a policy shift against mother-tongue-based multilingual education and a rise in English as the medium of instruction in many places – for example in the Philippines where a 2024 law discontinued mother tongue education from kindergarten to Grade 3.
At the same time, major funders for international development are retreating with USAID potentially closing and, announced as I write this blog, sweeping cuts to the UK’s international aid budget).
The LDC conference series itself lost its organisational funding during the pandemic.
We argue the relevance of an LDAN is crucial at this time: we need to support each other to develop the field and support each other in this time of institutional uncertainty.
How can we support a network of language and development advocates?
LDAN’s kick-off webinar on 5 February showed there is interest in building networks and developing the field of language and development.
Four colleagues who have worked with the LDCs before explored ideas for how an advocacy network can be useful and highlighted how language policy immediately impacts human rights including education, active citizenship, economic empowerment, social and political inclusion/exclusion, peace, justice, governance, and access to natural resources, land, food, and climate resilience.
To read a summary of this webinar, including the presentations, visit the LDAN blog.
Some of the questions raised included:
What is ‘language and development’ as a field? Does it match ‘language rights’ exactly? There was agreement that this area needs to be developed as a discipline.
Who cares about language and development? Are we focussing on the right networks? How do we ensure effective participation, and how do we transmit key messages?
Is there a need for an institutional ‘home’ – central organisational support? Many organisations and groups in this field rely on individuals or are self-funded initiatives.
Next steps
We would like to ask you to participate in:
Building an ‘LDAN’ – linking individuals, institutions and networks
Making the case for institutional support for such a network
Putting forward ideas for future activities and future direction
Identifying new voices and leaders
Immediate calls to action:
Join LDAN as individuals and share your suggestions via this online survey
Ask interested colleagues to join in too.
Help map out a ‘network of networks’: Add your suggestions to this shared document.
Participate in forthcoming webinars and other activities.
And please explore the LDC library of publications and conference proceedings 1993-2019 freely available on our website.
Please join the discussion: We look forward to hearing from you!
Philip Harding-Esch is a language and development expert with extensive experience in multilingual education, policy, and advocacy. A former trustee of the Language & Development Conference (LDC) series, he also served as Programme Consultant for the 2017 LDC in Dakar, which focused on Language and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Passionate about the intersection of language and equitable development, Philip continues to champion linguistic justice through research, advocacy, and international collaboration.
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