For immediate release.

Launch of Integrity Icon Somaliland in 2021

7 January, Washington DC – Accountability Lab is excited to announce the launch of our prize-winning Integrity Icon Somaliland campaign to “name and fame” the most honest government officials in the region. This campaign will be supported by the government of the Netherlands and carried out along with a broad network of partners in Somaliland, ensuring that the campaign is contextualized and rooted in the experiences and stories of Somalilanders. It is being designed to allow for deep citizen engagement and broad public participation around issues of integrity and honest public service. This approach will give ordinary people the opportunity to ‘catch public servants doing the right thing’  through their commitment to honesty, integrity and their passion to make a difference, despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.   

Integrity Icon Somaliland 2021 brings with it the opportunity to identify, celebrate and replicate examples of integrity and leadership within the Somaliland public service.  It will promote the core values of accountability and transparency by giving citizens an opportunity to find examples of honest public servants who make a valuable contribution to the country; and go above and beyond the call of duty to push for greater integrity in their workplace.

With the launch of Integrity Icon Somaliland 2021, the region will be part of a larger global campaign, joining a worldwide cohort of hundreds of public servants driving positive change. We foresee that this will generate public debate around values such as integrity, while also demonstrating the importance of honesty and personal responsibility. More importantly, these discussions in Somaliland will also infuse citizens with stories of hope, inspiring a new generation to become effective, passionate and effective public servants.  

The campaign will run over 12 months through the course 2021. Interested organizations and local partners are invited to connect with us, as we map out a collaborative framework during the course of January and February 2021. The campaign will be launched at the beginning of March 2021, kicking off an eight-month process to identify Somaliland’s exemplary non-elected public servants who embody the principles, values and philosophy of the initiative. Ordinary people will be invited to nominate public servants that work in the fields of health, education, safety and security and public administration. Nominations will close at the end of August 2021.  

All nominees will be vetted by an independent panel of judges, who will select the top five finalists, who will be filmed, with their stories then disseminated widely on TV and the radio; with the public able to vote for their favorites during October 2021. In December 2021 the ‘Choice of the People’ will be announced at an awards ceremony where we will also ‘name and fame’ the other Icons.      

Our five Icons will continue to work closely with Accountability Lab and our Somaliland partners. This will enable them to expand their own networks, grow their skills and share ideas and lessons, giving them the opportunity to deepen their own work and to propose independent initiatives that can further support reform within government.  For further information around the campaign and a list of countries and cities involved, visit the Integrity Icon site. 

Alternatively, contact us at [email protected] with any queries about the campaign. You can also fill out this form if you’d like to collaborate with us. For any media queries, please direct them to [email protected].

Sheena Adams