diff --git a/django/bin/make-messages.py b/django/bin/make-messages.py
index 75b0bc0ca0..557cb5eeec 100755
--- a/django/bin/make-messages.py
+++ b/django/bin/make-messages.py
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
+# Need to ensure that the i18n framework is enabled
+from django.conf import settings
+settings.configure(USE_I18N = True)
+
 from django.utils.translation import templatize
 import re
 import os