Gebersystem

English translation: donor system

16:06 Oct 22, 2016
German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - International Org/Dev/Coop
German term or phrase: Gebersystem
German sentence:

"Trotz einiger Fortschritte wie der Verabschiedung der Millennium Development Goals (2000) und ihren Nachfolgern, den Sustainable Development Goals (2015), oder der Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) und dem Pariser Klimabkommen (2015) verstärken sich die Fehlentwicklungen im globalen Gebersystem."

My translation so far:

Despite some progress such as the adoption of the Millenium Development Goals (2000) and their successors the Sustainable Development Goals (2015), or the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the Paris Agreement on climate change (2015) undesirable developments in the global GEBERSYSTEM are increasing.

Any ideas what "Gebersystem" is?
Markus Heinrich
Ireland
English translation:donor system
Explanation:
There are other ways of saying it, but a literal translation works perfectly well.

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Note added at 13 mins (2016-10-22 16:20:13 GMT)
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http://scar.gmu.edu/magazine-article/international-donor-sys...
Selected response from:

philgoddard
United States
Grading comment
Thank you very much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3donor system
philgoddard
3 +2(global, international, etc.) system of development assistance
Paul Cohen
3aid system
Michael Martin, MA


Discussion entries: 6





  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
donor system


Explanation:
There are other ways of saying it, but a literal translation works perfectly well.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2016-10-22 16:20:13 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------


http://scar.gmu.edu/magazine-article/international-donor-sys...


    Reference: http://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html#/search=geber&searchL...
philgoddard
United States
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16
Grading comment
Thank you very much!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Steffen Walter
15 hrs

agree  Lancashireman: donor X 1, aid x 2 or development x 3? For stylistic reasons alone, this is the solution of choice.
1 day 8 hrs

agree  Michael Martin, MA: This is good on its content merits. Stylistic reasons have nothing to do with it
2 days 4 hrs
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35 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
aid system


Explanation:
global or international aid system. I think that's the term you're looking for.

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Note added at 49 mins (2016-10-22 16:55:43 GMT)
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"Hence, current aid systems lack of mechanism for sustainable financing to produce effective system-wide improvements to public health, even though they aim to achieve the system-wide Goals specified in the MDGs, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth of poor countries." https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10...

Michael Martin, MA
United States
Local time: 09:57
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
(global, international, etc.) system of development assistance


Explanation:
Michael and Phil are right: It has to do with donors and aid (development aid, foreign aid, etc.).

I’ve done quite a few translations for NGOs in recent years and noticed a definite trend among these organizations away from using the word “aid” in their documents (foreign aid, etc.). Perhaps the word "aid" sounds too much like a handout, or like you're throwing a lifesaver to a drowning victim.

Instead, many NGOs embrace the word “development” and a fairly common term in this context would be development assistance. This may be yet another case of the omnipresent politically-correct language police splitting the hairs of our terminology, or it may be a conscious nod to the fact that we no longer talk about “third-world countries” but instead refer to them as “developing countries” that will one day be on an equal footing with the world’s industrialized nations.

And what is the difference between “aid” and “assistance”, you might ask? Well, I've wondered about that myself! I think we generally say that we provide “aid” to someone in dire need, whereas “to assist” is to provide help for something that someone could do themselves but, thanks to the assistance, is now able to do more effectively, profitably, etc.

At any rate, here are some online examples of “development assistance”:

"Based on a survey earlier this year, Save the Children staff believe that the MDGs impacted most particularly on some donors' policies, with Official Development Assistance (ODA) being channelled increasingly to social development issues, such as education and health. The degree to which the MDGs influenced developing country governments' policies was less clear and rather depended on the country concerned, although a number of staff noted that there was greater openness to discuss these issues since they were now linked to a global agenda."

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/consultatio...


From a Millennium Development Goals Report:

"Bulgaria's second Millennium Development Goals Report - 2008 accurately and justly reflects the contribution of the Republic of Bulgaria towards global development goals. The report outlines our country's achievements for raising the living standards of Bulgarian people, for education and healthcare, for protecting the environment, for strengthening democracy and building a more effective international system of development assistance."

And from a blog:

"The Western system of development assistance has led to a high dependency on external help and has thus stifled innovation, entrepreneurship as well as hindered Africans from taking their fate into their own hands."

Source: http://brel54.blogspot.com/2010/09/western-vs-eastern-perspe...


Paul Cohen
Greenland
Local time: 11:57
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Steffen Walter: Oder so :-)
12 hrs

agree  Björn Vrooman: What was tipping the scales in your favor was the nice explanation and the use of "system of." There's also "system of global aid": http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/thebirminghambrief/items/20...
17 hrs

neutral  philgoddard: I don't see the point of looking for near synonyms instead of translating what's on the page. If they'd meant to say "development assistance" they'd have put Entwicklungshilfe or Entwicklungszusammenarbeit
20 hrs
  -> You may be right, Phil, but you could say the same thing about "aid system". I guess it's just what we do. We look at different ways of expressing things and that’s produced three different approaches here (none of which are "wrong" in my opinion).

neutral  Lancashireman: Not even sure that this is right in isolation, but in the sentence to be translated, you have now increased the occurrence of 'development' from two to three. Is that OK in your style guides?
1 day 5 hrs
  -> It's a new system that I'm developing.
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