Strategies, safety measures, and support systems for Human Rights Defenders

In this episode, we’re looking at how shifting political landscapes affect activism with Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, and young Bangladeshi activist, Mahera Musharrat, Deputy Director of Programmes for ‘Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment (VOICE)’ and a participant of Accountability Lab’s Civic Charge, 2024 Cohort.
Our guests share their personal experiences, protest strategies and approaches to maintaining safety during violent demonstrations.

Democracy’s Missing Link: Youth in the Driver’s Seat

From Pakistan to Nigeria and the United States to New Zealand, join host Kibo Ngowi in this special edition of the Accountabili-TEA podcast as we take a deep dive into youth and democratic participation across the world.

Voices of Resilience: Climate Justice in Action

Join host Kibo Ngowi in this special episode of the Accountabili-TEA podcast as he delves deep into the crucial issue of climate justice. Climate justice is all about ensuring that everyone, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, is treated fairly and equitably in the face of climate change.

The Value of Shared Leadership

In this episode of the Accountabili-TEA Podcast, AL Communications Director Sheena Adams engages in a conversation with the three co-CEOs of Accountability Lab: Blair Glencorse, Jean Scrimgeour, and Cheri-Leigh Erasmus. The episode explores the organization’s recent transition to a co-leadership structure and delves into the motivations behind this change.

Music, Activism & Equity

In the latest episode of the Accountabili-TEA podcast, host Cheri-Leigh Erasmus is joined by two special guests, MI Abaga and Nora Rahimian, who are longtime supporters of Accountability Lab. MI Abaga is a prominent rapper, singer-songwriter, and producer from Nigeria, while Nora Rahimian is the President of Incredible Music and the CEO of culture fix, a global network using creativity for social impact.

Accountability Lab’s 2023-2026 Strategy

In this episode, Marketing & Communications Officer, Kibo Ngowi, discusses the Lab’s strategy for the 2020 to 2026 period with a cross-section of the Lab’s leadership from across the world. The guests are Cheri-Leigh Erasmus, AL Global Director of Learning; Doussouba Konaté, the Country Director for AL Mali; McDonald Lewanika, the Country Director of AL Zimbabwe; and Fayyaz Yaseen, the Country Director of AL Pakistan.

Accountable Now

Accountable Now is a membership network that works with civil society organizations from across the world on improving accountability practices through a comprehensive reporting process. Originally established in 2008 by 10 CSOs, the network now has 24 Member organizations which are active in more than 150 countries. Host Kibo Ngowi speaks to Rocio Moreno Lopez, Accountable Now’s Executive Director, and Jean Scrimgeour, Accountability Lab’s Global Director of Operations & Growth.

Inside Voice2Rep Zimbabwe

Voice to Represent (“Voice2Rep”) is a first-of-its-kind music competition searching for underground and undiscovered music artists who support greater representation, participation and accountability across Nigeria, Liberia and Zimbabwe. In this episode host Kibo Ngowi chats to two alumni of AL Zimbabwe’s Voice2Rep program – Tanaka Stephen Moyo aka Ndonzi Beats and Rudo Nyoni aka Rudo Amor – about their experiences being part of the Voice2Rep program and gets the inside scoop on the inspiration and creation of the songs they produced during the process that made it onto the V2R album Power. To create the album Power, all the artists of the 2021 cohort gathered at a house in Harare for an intense week of learning, collaboration and music production as the artists were trained on how to infuse socially conscious themes into their music.

Hacking Corruption

In July, Accountability Lab partnered with the Center for International Private Enterprise and the U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Intl Narcotics & Law Enforcement (INL) to host HackCorruption, a hybrid tech4good event that brought together a hundred participants from 6 Southern and East African countries. The participants were split into teams where they worked together to create innovative solutions to corruption problems with the support of mentors and experts.

The OGP Youth Toolkit

Youth participation in the OGP process has challenged governments to be more ambitious. Young people have shaped national and local agendas, and pushed for reforms that otherwise would not have taken place. But there are also gaps and this is what led to the creation of the OGP Youth Toolkit. Host Kibo Ngowi spoke to AL Programs & Learning Manager Sanjeeta Pant, who played a leading role in the creation of the toolkit, and Youth Advocates Ghana Youth Engagement & Advocacy Officer Francis Ametepey, who was also involved in the creation process to unpack what the toolkit is and how it is envisioned to drive youth engagement.

Accountability Lab turns 10

Accountability Lab has officially turned 10! This year the Lab is celebrating its first decade of existence so host Kibo Ngowi spoke to two people who have been part of our global family since the beginning. In this episode, AL Founder & Executive Director Blair Glencorse and AL Nepal’s Integrity Icon Program Manager Ashmita Sharma both reflect on the Lab’s early beginnings and what they feel have been our proudest achievements.

Film as a tool for social impact

We spoke to three dynamic women who are all passionate about using video to tell compelling stories and advocate for social issues. Two of them are alumni of the Lab’s Film Fellowship for young aspiring filmmakers and another is a seasoned journalist who recently trained some of our fellows in Nigeria on the finer points of filmmaking.

Pushing back against civic space restrictions

The closing of civic space has affected many of our network labs, encouraging our teams to devise creative strategies to push back against these restrictions. Narayan Adhikari from AL Nepal and Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa from AL Zimbabwe share some strategies that communities can use to resist attacks on democracy and human rights.

The power of micro reforms in the public service

We take a deep dive into the reforms of two of our incredible Integrity Icons from Pakistan and South Africa, Assistant Superintendent of Police Amna Baig and Social Worker Unathi Filita. They speak about how reform in the public service starts with small, consistent steps.

Building a sense of “anti-fragility” for social entrepreneurs

Accountapreneurs Pratik Kunwar from Nepal and Damaris Aswa from Kenya share advice for social entrepreneurs on how to perfect a sense of “anti-fragility” for difficult times. We also hear about some innovative methods being implemented around making Covid19 response and recovery projects more transparent.

Nepal’s Democratic Scenario | Defending Democracy EP #1

What is democracy? Is it about institutions, procedures, or the people? Is Nepal driven by its democratic values and constitutional norms? In this episode, Hari Sharma shares his insights into what Democracy means for Nepal through his experiences of analyzing the political situation in Nepal for over 3 decades. Defending Democracy is a 4-episode podcast series on strengthening Nepal’s democracy against foreign influences.

Intergenerational Gender Equality

How can we improve the fight toward gender equality by reducing the gaps between generations? How is defining gender roles from an early age shaping inequalities in our societies? We talk about Nepali cultures – wedding rituals, period rites, mandatory gender roles, paid vs household works, etc, and dissect how our society has continuously contributed to inequality. The amazing writer and feminist, Archana Thapa, shares her experiences and stories on how we can slowly change the narrative and find solutions to gender equality issues in Nepal.

Migrant Women Issues in Perspective

The issues of migrant women rarely come to light when speaking of labor migration. When in reality, they face layers of stigmatization and are hugely affected by restrictive policies. The government, in turn, seems to have paid no attention to the differential concerns and needs of migrant women. What can be done differently to address the challenges of migrant women? How is the concerned CSO leading advocacy on this issue? In our fifth episode, we discuss all Gender and Migration with the Founder of AMKAS Nepal, Bijaya Rai Shrestha.

Staying hopeful and positive

Is it possible for a single act from a single person to change the lives of hundreds of people? In our fourth episode, we chat with Maggie Doyne, the co-founder of BlinkNow Foundation shares her story of how they are empowering the lives of countless Nepalis in the Karnali region. She is an inspiration to us all. Maggie has been awarded many titles, along with being the CNN hero of the year 2015, but she will always be the hero of countless women and children in Karnali.

Your digital rights and responsibilities

Do we actually know all of our digital rights? What are the laws that govern our activities over the internet? Rastra Bimochan Timelsena, aka Random Nepali, – youtuber, lawyer, entrepreneur – clarifies all of our confusion concerning digital laws, individual rights, and the legal processes in a very fun episode.

Ins and outs of lockdowns

In our second episode, we discuss the lockdown dilemma with Dr. Anup Subedee M.D., infectious diseases doctor and a vocal individual about the gaps in Nepal’s public health system. Let’s hear from the doctor himself, whether or not it was the right thing for Nepal to issue different phases of lockdown, and the scientific reasons behind it. We also discuss the dilemma of vaccines in this episode.

Intersectionality and inclusion

In this first episode, we discuss intersectionality with Gauri Nepali, a Dalit activist and a freelance writer who shares her own experience while advocating for the issues of Dalit women in Nepal. Let’s hear from our incredible guest Gauri on everything from her personal journey, struggles, and her dream to liberate our fellow citizens from the helm of caste and social strata. Gauri Nepali is a proud feminist, a Dalit activist, and a freelance writer on gender and cast issues. She is also a board member of Dalit Reader, a knowledge-based production campaign where people can read and write about Dalit issues by joining different workshops. She is also affiliated with various organizations working for LGBTIQ people.

Cementing collaboration between communities and local councillors – meeting our CFAs

Zimbabwe 2022 By-Elections – Reflections from the Youth (Shona)

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) reports that only 35% of registered voters participated in the March 2022 By-Elections. Notably, young people, who form the majority of Zimbabwe’s population, did not go out to vote.

In this episode, Accountability Lab Zimbabwe speaks to 5 young people to understand why they did not participate in the By-Elections. The podcast also asks if young people understand why it is important to vote, and shares some of the solutions young people are proposing to encourage others like themselves to participate in electoral processes. Note: This podcast is in Shona.

Citizenship, Accountability, and Participation: Accountability

In this episode, we’re talking about accountability in governance. What is it? Why can we ask for it? And how do we get it?

Resources:
Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013)
Public Finance Management Act

What is Citizenship?

Citizenship Accountability and Participation is a podcast series that explores governance, accountability and all of the ideas that come with it.

In this episode we discuss citizenship, rights and responsibilities. This episode is produced for CivActs a pioneering citizen feedback, dialogue and community voice platform to ensure accountability in the development process.