SDSN Malaysia Successfully Concludes SDG Academy Translation Project
SDSN Malaysia coordinated the localization of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by translating modules in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team.
A critical aspect of educational access is language. With this in mind, SDSN Malaysia has rallied a group of volunteer translators to undertake the complete translation of the SDG Academy “How to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?” course content.
Translators from Various Disciplines
Translators from three SDSN Malaysia institutions, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Malaya (UM), and Sunway University responded to the call for volunteers. Translators comprised of academic faculty from multiple disciplines ranging from environmental sustainability to banking and finance.
Localization of Sustainable Development
This project managed to localize sustainable development by creating a glossary of terms, which in the long term is aimed at promoting greater familiarity with climate-related terminologies in Bahasa Melayu. The convening of researchers from three member institutions has spurred an effort to seek a standardized Bahasa Melayu translation of “Sustainable Development Goals”, and further consensus over the interchangeable use of three Malay words ( hijau, mampan, lestari ) for “sustainable”.
Translation of "How to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?”
Translation work of 37 videos in the “How to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?” course has been successfully completed. The course teaches sustainable development across seven modules. The public can now take the course with the choice of Bahasa Melayu as an option.
This is the first SDG Academy course translated into Bahasa Melayu, which is also Malaysia’s most widely spoken language.
Translating this course to Bahasa Melayu gives it wide regional access as well. Indonesian is very similar to Bahasa Melayu structurally, with differences mainly in vocabulary and pronunciation. Over 200 million people speak Bahasa Indonesian.
Using the Translated Material
The “How to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?” SDG Academy course educates practitioners on sustainable development decision-making, planning and stakeholder inclusion pathways for the achievement of the 17 SDGs.
Educators can now use these videos to teach sustainable development by easily accessing them at the SDG Academy Library, over seven hours of video content are available, packaged in 10 – 16-minute clips.
Government officers, civil society, the finance sector, and business leaders are now able to utilize this resource to further advance their roles in improving sustainable development locally.
Translation as Educational Access
SDG Academy put out a call in April 2021 to the SDSN regional and national chapters for translation of its material to more languages. As of now, the SDG Academy modules are available in 12 languages besides English. The SDG Academy has since 2014 curated material to teach sustainable development to a global audience.
Resources
To download the glossary and to access other localized material on sustainable development, please visit the SDSN Malaysia Priority Solutions webpage.
For the full set of translated videos, visit the SDG Academy Library Website.
Further work is being done to increase accessibility of Education for Sustainable Development. Visit the SDSN Malaysia website for the latest developments on localizing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
To be part of our next project, reach out to us at [email protected].