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Music Post-Ebola: Artist Amaze says Hipco Songs Made Tremendous Impact

By: Heather Maxwell. This blog was originally published by Voice of America.   Music had a big role to play both during and in the aftermath of the West Africa Ebola epidemic. I found that out when I visited Monrovia in August. A lot of artists wrote songs about the personal experiences people had facing the disease. Henry Amazin’ Toe, a.k.a Amaze, is a well-established hipco artist who composed and recorded such songs.I met Amaze several times during my stay in the Liberian capital. The first time was during a group interview I held in Mamba Point with other artists (Teddy Ride and Margaret [...]

2016-09-21T00:00:00+00:0021st September 2016|

Nuwakot: Land Of Dreamers And Healers

By: Brittany Wait, Visual Storytelling Fellow in Nepal Walk with me... ...through Kharanitar, a rural village in the Nuwakot district of Nepal still rebuilding after the 2015 earthquakes. We spent two days working alongside Nepali nonprofit, Visible Impact, educating 15 local girls on accountability and activism. One of our accountapreneurs, Medha Sharma, its president and CEO, and her associate Sharmila Acharya, took Samita and I along with them. After an eventful ride, in which got stuck in mud and had to move boulders from a recent flash flood out of the way, we arrived. There, we met our colleague Suresh Chand and [...]

2016-09-09T00:00:00+00:009th September 2016|

Intern Insights: Thukten Lama

On International Youth Day, we wanted to share how interns joining our team are also learning along with us. Here are Thukten’s reflections on what he has been learning from his internship at Accountability Lab Nepal this summer. On the second week of July, while Nepal was busy with the countdown to the Euro Cup finals and the release of the movie Sultan, a few like-minded people working in the social sector put aside their daily tasks and gathered in cafe in Lazimpath. The gathering was the second session of the Accountability Incubator, a flagship program of Accountability Lab, where the [...]

2016-08-12T00:00:00+00:0012th August 2016|

Preventing Violence through Mediation as Liberia Transitions, Part 2

By: Beth Goldberg (Summer Resident Fellow at Accountability Lab Liberia) and John Kamma (Founder of Citizens Bureau for Development and Productivity, and Accountapreneur). This blog post is the second in a series about the Community Justice Team in Logan Town, Liberia. Mr. Kamma and his team of mediators face three primary challenges in delivering justice in Liberia: Transportation & Communication – the communities served by the Citizens Bureau are widely dispersed and the mediators have no vehicles. For example, one office of the Bureau serves Logan Town’s 17 distinct communities of over 70,000 residents. This is a tall order, but [...]

2016-07-14T00:00:00+00:0014th July 2016|

Preventing Violence through Mediation as Liberia Transitions, Part 1

By: Beth Goldberg (Summer Resident Fellow at Accountability Lab Liberia) and John Kamma (Founder of Citizens Bureau for Development and Productivity, and Accountapreneur) The five mediators sat along the wall of the bright blue room, sweat beading in the stagnant Liberian heat as the office manager, Rockson, recalled a recent case: A 16 year-old girl was accused of witchcraft by her community for exhibiting “unusual behavior”, not unheard of in Liberia where belief in the supernatural is widespread. The girl was subsequently ostracized by her community, prohibited from attending school and church. The situation escalated when her parents were given [...]

2016-07-13T00:00:00+00:0013th July 2016|

Can corruption act as a barrier to entry in the private sector?

By: Talib uz Zaman, CIPE Pakistan Programme Officer, and Accountability Lab Pakistan Accountapreneur “Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power” - William Gaddis Corruption, defined as exploitation of entrusted power for private benefit is, unfortunately,  prevalent in Pakistan. It can take many forms, including bribery, graft, theft and extortion. In the corporate sector, its presence reduces business credibility when professionals misuse their positions for personal gain. Corruption has not only been identified as one of the most significant constraints to private sector development but is also becoming a leading problem for people all around the world. Engagement in corruption depends [...]

2016-07-11T00:00:00+00:0011th July 2016|

5 Lessons Learned on Youth Involvement in the Accountability Movement

By: Anne Sophie Ranjbar, Associate Director Almost half of the global population is under the age of 25, so, as we try to create truly representative citizen engagement, youth must play a central role. At the GPSA's recent Global Partners Forum, we joined Save the Children and in leading a workshop on why and how youth are strategic stakeholders in social accountability efforts. In case you missed it, here are a few key insights gathered from our four years of working with youth on the ground: Youth are the key to changing culture and shifting norms. The only truly sustainable solution is to [...]

2016-06-06T00:00:00+00:006th June 2016|

Pehlaaj holds interactive theatre on corruption

This article was originally published by Pakistan Today. Pehlaaj -Theatre for Social Change Organisation held an interactive theatre show at Faiz Ghar on the subject of corruption on Saturday. Students of different educational institutions were among the audience. Naeema Butt, theatre founder and an “accountaprenuer” in the US-based Accountability Lab Incubation Centre, held the session aiming at empowering the citizens to build the world’s best tools for integrity. “So, do you think the corruption is something that is practiced only in government offices?” she asked the audience, after several responses that government departments and politicians were corrupt. The workshop, which [...]

2016-06-05T00:00:00+00:005th June 2016|

Politics, Persistence, & Publicity – transforming education in Pakistan

By: Rafia Malik, Fayyaz Yaseen, and Syed Kauser Abbas. This blog post was originally published by Making All Voices Count.   In 2015, Accountability Lab won one of the top spots in Making All Voices Count's Global Innovation Competition with their project that brings tech-savvy youth activists together with Pakistan's open data movement.   A year on, the team discuss one of their biggest successes - unblocking funding for building colleges in Punjab - and why they think that we must invest in better public campaigns; in time to build government relationships; and  in understanding that "success is as much about perseverance as innovation".   Last year, through the [...]

2016-05-23T00:00:00+00:0023rd May 2016|

Liberia: Using Music to Enlighten the Youth On Why It Is Important to Vote

By: Claudia Smith. This article was originally published by the Daily Observer. "I believe we are to know who to vote for in other for us to have a better nation or society, despite the poverty and hardship we are faced with. We shouldn't be carried away by politicians with mere talks to gain their selfish desires" Once again, voting time is near. Sadly, many don't know why they or should cast their vote; they vote because of the benefits and money that they feel belong to voting. Trying to change these perspectives, two talented artists, who have been working [...]

2016-05-19T00:00:00+00:0019th May 2016|
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