Voices of Civic Champions: Bridging the gap between communities and policies

By: Mehwish Niaz, Accountability Lab Pakistan Accountapreneur

“Engaging local governments in youth development through a holistic, iterative approach to policy formulation and execution, national governments can help promote youth civic engagement through a cohesive strategy that invests in young people as catalysts for sustainable growth.”

How can we best encourage active citizenship? What does it take to build or rebuild a stronger sense of community on citizens’ rights in our local area? These questions continue to capture people’s imagination in Pakistan and beyond. We see this reflected in the popular narrative of ‘loss of community’, that tells us “things just ain’t like they used to be when we all used to look out for each other, when you knew your neighbors”. We see it on the policy stage in the continued commitment to localism. We also see it around the election process in the concern about perceived citizen apathy and disillusionment with the political system.

One Year On: Responding to Disaster in Nepal with Echoing Green

By: Blair Glencorse, founder of Accountability Lab, and Pranav Budhathoki, founder of Local Interventions Group, are Echoing Green Fellows working in Nepal. Follow their work on Twitter: @accountlab and @LIGintl.

Like so many others in Nepal, Butti Gyalbo Taamangni suffered heartbreak after the devastating twin earthquakes that struck the Himalayan country last April, which killed over 8,000 people and displaced almost 3 million more. She lost her husband during the first quake, a loss compounded by two other critical problems. He was the only wage-earner in the family, so her income dried up immediately; and she was undocumented, so was not able to apply for any recovery support from the government.

Gathering and sharing feedback to improve the earthquake response in Nepal

By: Sara Rodriguez, Accountability Lab Resident in Nepal

Accountability Lab and Local Interventions Group started the Mobile Citizen Helpdesks (MCHDs) just under a year ago with very limited resources. Right after the first earthquake on April 26, 2015, we mobilized volunteers to provide earthquake-related information to victims and to close the feedback loop by connecting citizens needing assistance with different organizations who could provide relief. Today the MCHDs are a consolidated project that has reached over 60,000 citizens in 800 communities.

What’s the Best Way to Encourage Business Integrity?

By: Blair Glencorse, Executive Director of Accountability Lab. This blog post was originally published by GE Reports.

To achieve accountability, businesses need to foster a culture of integrity.

In recent years, significant efforts have been made to create global rules to prevent businesses from taking part in corruption, from the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and theUK’s Bribery Act to the UN Convention Against Corruption. This is continuing to gain interest among policy makers, including the G8 and G20, while additional frameworks are being put in place to prevent tax evasion and related activities through which corporate interests can undermine the public good. This is as it should be —corruption and a lack of integrity exacerbate inequalities, sap trust and undermine shared prosperity.

Democracy that Delivers Podcast #10: Accountability Lab’s Blair Glencorse Talks About Engaging Youth to Build a Movement for Integrity

By: CIPE Staff. This blog post was originally published on the CIPE Development Blog.

In this week’s podcast, Executive Director of the Accountability Lab (@accountlab) Blair Glencorse talks about why accountability is important and how his organization is building a generational movement for integrity.

Glencorse discusses youth-driven approaches to building accountability and transparency in governance, using technology and popular culture to engage youth, and how the highly popular Integrity Idol television show celebrates honest government officials in Nepal.

Our Short Experience With Disaster Accountability in Nepal

By: Patrick Xu, Harvard University. This blog post was originally published by Local Interventions Group.

Austin Wu, a fellow Statistics concentrator and good friend, and I devised a senior research project based off of our existing interests: can we study how data has been used in the disaster relief process, and how data can effectively improve and eventually optimize disaster relief? Given the intensity of damage of Nepal’s most recent earthquake disasters, as well as the coincidental timing, Austin and I began to reach out to NGOs delivering aid in Nepal to begin to build a narrative of how data can be used to aid in the disaster relief process. After a string of emails, we were put in contact with Pranav Budhathoki and Narayan Adhikari, and we arranged an agreement for Austin and I to help with a 5-day analytics project for their two organizations. Now, nearing the end of the project, we reflect on what has been an incredibly positive experience.

Swamped with survey data, Patrick trying to figure out work, and life in general too we suppose!

We met early on our first day to discuss the project, and we were warmly greeted by a number of the members of the team. Pranav detailed the “Follow the Money” questions within the surveys, and he tasked us to analyze those questions to the best of our ability.
This hands-off approach remained a consistent theme throughout our stay at LIG, as Pranav always opened himself up to questions, but allowed us to figure out and analyze what we deemed most important.

Honesty Oscars Winners

What a campaign this year! We’ve had the chance to honor fantastic artists making waves in this anti-corruption space. Without further ado, here are your 2016 Honesty Oscars winners!

Best Photo: Tony Maake- A South African photographer who beautifully brought to light the water crisis in South African villages. See the photo up close here.

Accountability Lab and ONE Campaign launch the third annual Honesty Oscars

By: Dhanya Addanki

Ready to revolutionize the Oscars?

We at Accountability Lab and the ONE Campaign are gearing up to do just that with our third annual Honesty Oscars. The Honesty Oscars are a weeklong digital event honoring artists, activists, films and musicians fighting corruption with their voice and with their art. This year, we’ve added photographers and women activists to our inspiring mix of creatives working exceptionally hard to ignite a more transparent world. We want to ensure that our governments and corporations are held accountable for their actions and these nominees play a significant role in creating a world where this is possible.

Learning to Transform Governance in the Philippines

By: Blair Glencorse, Accountability Lab Executive Director.

Last week I was part of the latest Making All Voices Count (MAVC) learning event in Manila—which brought together about 60 of the initiative’s grantees, researchers, technologists and other stakeholders to reflect on the theme of “transformative governance”. The first point to make is that as a learning event—with a real emphasis on reflecting, sharing and improving what we do, it was the best workshop I’ve been to in a long time. The content, team and process kept me fully engaged from start to finish and I came away thinking hard about how the Accountability Lab does its work and where that fits into the larger accountability ecosystem.

Announcing 2016 Positions in Nepal, Liberia and Pakistan

The Accountability Lab and the Newhouse Center for Global Engagement have partnered to create opportunities for visual storytelling and communication students to work in Liberia, Nepal and Pakistan. As a part of that collaboration we are announcing the Summer 2016 Visual Storytelling and Communications Fellowship positions.

In Liberia, Nepal and Pakistan, the Accountability Lab supports a variety of innovative programs, with a strong focus on the arts – music, film, media, etc. While fellows will have the chance to engage in work across the Accountability Lab’s portfolio, it is anticipated that support for the Accountability Lab’s Film Schools and the Integrity Idol campaigns will constitute majority of the residents’ work.