Quiz: Find Out Your Level of Devspeak Expertise

International development jargon and buzzwords, known as devspeak, can hurt readers' heads. But hear us out; devspeak has its advantages.

In the international development sector, jargon and buzzwords can reveal priorities, goals, and sector trends set by development agencies, organizations and research centres. They become unifying factors. People working in the sector understand the meaning of a shared concept. We instinctively know what we mean when we use "sustainability" or "service delivery." In contrast, if a military commander, a coder, and a mechanical engineer talk about "deployment," the first would think the discussion is about the movement of armed forces, the second would say it's when a website or app is ready to go live, and the third one would talk about a vehicle's airbags inflating due to a crash.

Using jargon and buzzwords may be helpful on a professional level, but general audiences might find some of these terms less helpful. At Oxfam, we do our best to write as plainly as possible, but sometimes, some of these terms might sneak up on our texts. 

So, let's untangle some devspeak! This quiz will help you make sense of what some of these words mean.