Nepal bureaucrat clinches ‘Integrity Idol’ crown

By: AFP. This article was originally published by The Nation newspaper. Nepalese civil servant Gyan Mani Nepal doesn’t sing, dance or perform magic tricks - but all eyes were on the bespectacled bureaucrat on Sunday when he became the country’s first Integrity Idol. The online contest, which eschewed the glitz of popular television talent shows, saw nearly 10,000 people cast their votes via text message and Facebook in a bid to encourage honesty in the corruption-ridden Himalayan nation. An education official in eastern Panchthar district, Nepal won praise for his efforts to increase teacher attendance and boost student pass rates [...]

2015-01-12T00:00:00+00:0012th January 2015|

Nepal’s Integrity Idol seeks civil servants with the X factor

By: Pete Pattisson. This article was originally published by The Guardian. A reality TV contest is aiming to change the corruption and incompetence that pervade Nepal’s civil service – but it has a long way to go While millions of Britons settle down on their sofas to choose the winner of The X Factor this weekend, Nepalese will be busy voting in their own television competition. But unlike other versions of perennially popular talent contests, the winner will not be the best singer or dancer, but the most honest civil servant in the country, in a competition called Integrity Idol. [...]

2014-12-11T00:00:00+00:0011th December 2014|

Battle hymns

By: G.P. | ABUJA. This article was originally published by The Economist.Protest music in Liberia GIRLS in tight skirts and bright tops hold bottles of beer as they weave their way down the sandy lane towards Bernard’s Beach in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. A throng of young Liberians have gathered at one of the year’s biggest parties and most revellers are celebrating the growing popularity of Hip Co, a musical movement in the long-troubled West African country. The beach stage is propped up against a skeletal building, a memory of more than a decade of civil war. The performers face out to [...]

2014-01-14T00:00:00+00:0014th January 2014|

Accountability in Liberia: How the music industry is creating change

By: Blair Glencorse, Executive Director of the Accountability Lab and Nora Rahimian, an organiser who uses the power of music to effect change. This blog post was originally published by the ONE Campaign. “If we don’t speak up against the ills in society, who will?” asks Takun J, Liberia’s Hip Co King, in front of thousands of screaming fans at a concert in Monrovia. He then launches into “Police Man” a song about police corruption, which several years ago had the artist arrested and beaten by the authorities. Hip Co – which emerged in the 1980s – blends hip hop with Liberian English.  Born in the [...]

2014-01-07T00:00:00+00:007th January 2014|

Accountability Lab Creates Network of “Hip Co” Accountability Ambassadors in Liberia

Last month, Accountability Lab launched “Hip Co for Accountability” – an initiative to use the hugely popular and uniquely Liberian genre of music, Hip Co, to spread awareness and empowerment to a much wider segment of the Liberian population, particularly the younger generation and those less able to read and write. Twelve of the most influential Hip Co artists in the country have agreed to join a network of Accountability Ambassadors: Takun J, Nasseman, JB Soulfresh, Shining Man, Lil Bishop, Dr. C, Pochano, Picardo, JD Donzo, Uncle Shaq, Blackest 305, and Santos. After receiving training on the fundamentals of accountability, [...]

2013-10-11T00:00:00+00:0011th October 2013|

The Lab Receives Grant from the Case Foundation for Anti-Corruption Film Schools

At the Be Fearless NGen-Case Foundation event in New York City, Executive Director Blair Glencorse presented his idea for an anti-corruption film school for women and girls in Liberia. The proposed project would involve five-week, hands-on training sessions in Liberia’s two largest cities, Monrovia and Buchanan. The schools will build understanding of corruption, accountability and conflict issues, and provide the participants with the skills to direct, produce and edit short, low and no-budget documentaries about important problems in their communities. The project aims to empower women and girls, who in many ways are excluded, as a corrupt system skews access [...]

2013-10-01T00:00:00+00:001st October 2013|

Accountability Lab Hosts an Accountability Film Festival in Liberia

On Tuesday, Accountability Lab held Liberia’s first festival, showcasing five short but powerful documentaries created by students of the Lab’s recent 5-week accountability filmmaking training program. After an introduction by the Accountability Lab Liberia team, attendees were given the first public viewing of the five new Liberian documentaries: “Dark Sunlight” by Hashim Pabai; “The Future” by Dyfan Massaquoi; “Say it” by Dorcus Pewee; “The Desert Island” by Arthur Wahwehlee; and “Whose Job” by Morris Sherif. Each film depicted a different accountability issue commonly faced by Liberians: electricity shortages, child labor, sexual exploitation of women, and water and sanitation problems. These [...]

2013-09-19T00:00:00+00:0019th September 2013|

Rajneesh Receives Youth Action Fund Grant to Build Anti-Corruption Network

Nepali Accountapreneur Rajneesh Bhandari received a generous grant from Open Society Foundations’ Youth Action Fund for a project to build a network of investigative journalists to fight corruption in Nepal. The objective of the project, “A call to accountability: Voices of corruption fighters in Nepal,” is to use the Right to Information (RTI) Act to investigate, produce and promote five multimedia stories on corruption in various sectors in Nepal. These stories aim not only to inspire people, but also to provide them with the information they need to join the fight against corruption. Rajneesh will partner with the Accountability Lab [...]

2013-09-13T00:00:00+00:0013th September 2013|
Privacy Policy
Go to Top