Accountability Lab’s New Strategic Directions

Here at the Lab we just wrapped a year-long process of reimagining what the network does next, and the result is our Strategic Directions for 2026 to 2028 paper. It’s less of a five-year plan (after all, these days it is hard to plan 5 weeks in advance, let alone half a decade!); and more a set of bets about where the accountability field needs to go and the role we can play within it.

It is a complicated time. Democratic backsliding continues, autocracies are coordinating with each other more than ever, and civic space keeps shrinking under the weight of digital surveillance and transnational repression. At the same time, funding for governance and democracy work has contracted sharply, forcing a real reckoning with old models of sustainability. But there’s an upside buried in all of this disruption too. Civic and political engagement is happening in new ways, cross-border solidarity is easier, and governance quality is now tied directly to things like climate finance and private investment, which opens new doors for accountability work that didn’t exist a few years ago. AI is part of that same story: it’s creating new tools and new risks, and organizations that move early will help define how AI shapes our world.

Accountability Lab continues to exist to make governance work for people, through a translocal network of Labs working nationally and regionally across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. What sets us apart is that local knowledge and trusted relationships in each country connect into something bigger: a global network with shared identity and influence. One shift we are continuing to push for our network is to move from program delivery to infrastructure support. Through Civic Strength Partners, our fiscal partnership work, and civic convenings, we’ve become an important piece of the governance ecosystem.

Our theory of change posits that if you invest in reformers, in the organizations they build, and in the systems they operate within, and you connect all of that to global learning and narratives, then accountability change outlasts any single project, funder, or political cycle. That’s why we work at three levels simultaneously. We back individual reformers and civic leaders, inside government and outside it. We strengthen the organizations and coalitions that let those reformers work collectively and survive political and economic shocks. And we push on the systems and narratives that decide whether accountability is just a concept or a practiced reality.

Concretely, over the next three years that means strengthening leadership pipelines for Gen Z civic leaders reshaping politics across South Asia and Africa; building bridges between civic activists and reformers inside government; and making sure inclusion isn’t just a talking point but a structural feature of how programs get designed. It means growing Civic Strength Partners and our intermediary offerings so organizations losing access to traditional donor pipelines have somewhere else to turn. And it means investing in culture, storytelling, and youth-led initiatives that make ethical leadership feel aspirational rather than naive.

None of this works without financial resilience, so we’re diversifying revenue across grants, earned income, and philanthropic relationships, building shared reserves at the network level, and leaning into South-South partnerships.

By 2029, we want donors and peers looking to AL to understand what actually works for improving governance. We want civic space in the countries where we work to be measurably stronger and more capable of holding up under pressure. And we want the organizations and coalitions we’ve helped to build to keep going- because they are more needed than ever.

All of this is a shared endeavor- we would love to partner with you to make all of this happen; and are very open to new ideas and feedback on our strategic approach. Reach out to us if you’d like to chat!