We’ve been speaking to staff members from across our network about their reflections on our new ...strategy and the impact of their work.

🇿🇦 Here's what Civic Action Teams (CivActs) Program Officer, Funeka Manzi, and Integrity Icon Program Officer, Deekay Sibanda from our South Africa Lab had to say.

Funeka was most excited by the opportunity to work in a program that tapped into citizen-led action, active citizenship, and public participation, while Deekay was most drawn by the opportunity to film as part of the Integrity Icon program. But ultimately, both Funeka and Deekay found that their values aligned with Accountability Lab's.

"I love the ground-up approach, especially when implementing CivActs, consulting with community members on their challenges and speaking from that point rather than a top-to-bottom approach. I've seen a lot of civil society organizations impose on communities. That's something that I find great value in," says Funeka.

Deekay appreciates the organizational culture that allows for accountability internally saying: "I'm glad that we are allowed an opportunity to be ourselves and say what we are feeling in a respectful manner so that we build or rebuild the culture that we want or the working environment that we want".

Between Funeka and Deekay, they'd like to prioritise three of the four strategic themes AL has laid out for the next three years; Civic Agency, Inclusion, and Digital Governance. For Funeka's work in the CivActs program, she not only wants to ensure the inclusion of marginalised groups, but also wants to push to involve members of communities who don't already have political roots or affiliations.

"We want to be the facilitation key for change in communities and not just be viewed as the heroes who will come in and resolve all the issues. Having worked with these communities, we have found a lot of brilliant people who have been working on some of these identified challenges, and they come with such vibrant and interesting ideas of how to grow the team and the project".

#Accountability #Strategy #TeamWork

🌍 Africa's future lies in the hands of its youth!

The recent Citizens Summit in ...Defense of Democracy and Freedom in Lusaka, Zambia, co-hosted by the Lab, emphasized the crucial role of youth in governance processes. Young people bring fresh ideas, diverse perspectives, and innovative approaches to shaping policies that impact their lives and communities. With their digital literacy, social media expertise, and technological know-how, young people have the power to drive civic engagement, advocate for their rights, and hold governments accountable. 💪📲

AL's Kibo Ngowi expands on the recommendations made at the Citizens Summit to promote youth involvement in governance processes. From creating an enabling environment to ensuring meaningful representation, we can empower Africa's young people to become active, informed, and responsible citizens.

Click the link in our bio to read the full version and join the movement towards a brighter future. 📖🔗

Together, let's support the active participation of young people in shaping Africa's destiny! 🌟✨

#YouthInGovernance #AfricaUnleashed #AccountabilityMatters

Translocal networks provide a way for us to break down big ideas – like people, power and ...resources – into more manageable pieces; and understand how local efforts to problem-solve are both essential and instructive. It's understanding that we don’t need to empower people, that they are already empowered, and we just need to recognize and bolster that.

🎥 Our DRC film fellows have outdone themselves covering themes of corruption with gripping ...storylines. Watch them at the link in our bio or read on for more about them.

⚫️ Pascal Bahunde's short documentary film, Construire sans terminer c'est detruire (To Build Without Finishing is to Destroy) has sparked heated debate. It addresses issues around the transparency and fiscal liabilities of a provincial fuel tax to finance the construction of an urban road in Uvira, South Kivu province. The debate resulted in a proposal for a roundtable that will bring stakeholders together to monitor the construction of the Mwami-Hope road that should allow for continued dialogue and to promote collective action.

⚫️ Kizungu Christian's film, Ecole Shanja (Shanza School), denounces the mismanagement of funds received by a local NGO to build a school, and the importance of active citizens tracking the promises of community leaders.

⚫️ Gloria Chabene's film Haki (Right) tells the story of a widow of an Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo soldier, who is dealing with the aftermath of her husband's death and running a small business to support her family. After being harassed by a civil servant to pay double her taxes she stands up by reporting him.

⚫️ Rachel Rugarabura's Mon Ultime Souhait (My Ultimate Wish) is a story of Sifa, a human rights activist fighting tirelessly for justice for Maua, a now 26-year-old woman who was raped at the age of 14 by a rebel leader who despite his arrest, was released on account of his influence and the corruption that pervades in the judicial system. It's a heart wrenching but gripping story about how Maua eventually gets justice.

#filmfellowship #corruption #accountability

#ClimateSolutions are more sustainable and effective when they address inequality at every step. ...#GreenAccountability is key to making that happen. Join us later today at 2:30pm ET (register here - https://bit.ly/40zokeo) as the Lab joins the Global Partnership for Social Accountability at the World Bank to launch the Green Accountability Call for Proposals.

Green accountability ensures that communities on the front lines of the climate crisis have a voice in the solutions. Let's work together to build a just and livable future for all.

See all the details here - https://bit.ly/3AsFlw2

In many countries around the world, the massive scale of public procurement makes
it difficult ...to execute effectively - and also means it's prime ground for corruption. Delays, inefficiencies, and corruption stem from factors like the sheer number of contracts, large contract amounts, high contract complexity, the number of stakeholders and beneficiaries, and also secrecy surrounding some procurement tenders.

This will be a key problem set of our upcoming anti-corruption hackathon called HackCorruption, which starts on April 27 in Nepal. Many of our participants are already devising ingenious ways to utilize blockchain technology and other #tech4good applications to safeguard procurement practices in Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Read more about our problem sets here - https://hackcorruption.org/.

Meet a few more of our innovative participants attached!

#tech #hackathon #hackers

Just four days remain before we launch #HackCorruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 27! We're... bringing people together across South Asia to co-create anti-corruption solutions.

We're excited to introduce a few more of our participants from #Nepal, #India, #Bangladesh and #Pakistan - a diverse group of activists with strong ideas around procurement and transparency. Many teams have really interesting ideas around digitizing government services and using blockchain and AI to create more security.

Five winning teams with the most promising ideas will receive financial support of up to $10,000, mentorship, and ongoing training to help them build out their ideas. Meet some of our amazing participants below!

The program is supported by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the U.S. Department of State, in partnership with the Center for International Private Enterprise and Development Gateway.

#hackathon #training #tech #digital #event #solutionsengineer
#data #people #development #procurement

Filmmaker, fashion designer and all round multi-creative, Ska Sebata has been traveling the world ...with her film 'Her: A Disintegrated Notion'. Ska wrote, produced, directed, and designed the costumes for the film as part of the AL Film Fellowship Zimbabwe cohort of 2020, and the accolades keep coming.

Her film is a true community effort. Ska chose to cast first-time actors from her rural community, her brother-in-law designed the jewellery, and she did the costume design, painting the material with cement and paint.

We chatted about the importance of people being able to tell their own stories, and her plans to start her own production company for rural communities like hers to be able to do exactly that. Ska also has a book and documentary in the works, and hopes to extend "Her" to a full-length feature film from all the feedback and growing perspectives on the work.

Her film has been selected for, among others, the Fashion Film Festival Milano in Italy, the Africa International Human Rights Film Festival, and more recently, the World Health Organization's 4th Edition of the Health For All Film Festival (HAFF) Under the Sexual and Reproductive Health And Rights Category. If you haven't yet, watch it here:

Keep an eye out for the full podcast interview coming soon.
@skasebatacouture @alzfilmfellows @accountlabzw #ParticipantLab

Ahead of next month's G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, the Civil Society 7 (C7) presented a ...communique to Japanese President Fumio Kishida in Hiroshima with policy recommendations aiming to bring positive changes on global issues. One of these is that G-7 leaders launch urgent negotiations to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons before 2045.

Accountability Lab Nepal Country Director, Narayan Adhikari, and Programs and Learning Manager, Soni Khanal, attended the event. Narayan is the C7 Working Group coordinator on Open and Resilient Societies and moderated a panel discussion on how best such societies can be achieved.

Read the communique at the link in our bio.

#C7 #G7 #nuclear #governance #accountability
@accountlabnp @nayanadhib @soni_khanal