Elevating Local Knowledge for Sustainable Impact

By Sheena Adams and Nyema Richards Walking around Monrovia, Liberia it’s hard to escape Hipco music. From supermarkets and dress shops to small, battered radios attached to motorcycle taxis, the music floats all over the city. The genre combines Liberian Pidgin-English, called kolokwa, with high-BPM dance rhythms and also touches of reggae, hip hop and RnB. Dating back to the Liberian Civil War, it’s also a genre that tackles socio-political issues in the country, and is a means for young people to express themselves in a relatable, viral way. As a campaign tool, Hipco has proven to be a powerful vehicle for change. Arguably [...]

2020-08-14T11:16:39+00:0014th August 2020|

Accountability Lab Liberia Awards Winners of the Rap2Rep Coronavirus Music

Monrovia – Accountability Lab Liberia has awarded Hellen Smith, an emerging gospel musical artist, as the winner of this year's Rap2Rep musical campaign – a special feature that places high emphasis on coronavirus awareness messaging. By J. H. Webster Clayeh Rap2Rep is a musical campaign organized by the Accountability Lab Liberia that began 2015. It is a campaign that gives local artists an opportunity to use music as a tool for social change. The campaign has built a network of Hipco (Liberian style of music) artists that includes musicians who produce socially conscious music and are passionate about using their voices [...]

2020-07-21T10:40:04+00:0021st July 2020|

Accountability Lab awards 2 Liberian artists

Accountability Lab has awarded two Liberian artists for winning its Rap2Rep musical campaign. Ms. Hellen Smith emerged as winner of the campaign, receiving a grand prize of US$ 300, while Andrew Horton came second, taking away US$ 200 at the award ceremony held on July 17, 2020, on Carey Street, Monrovia. By Lewis S. Teh Ms. Janet M. Kamara said Rap2Rep is a campaign that is held under the auspices of Accountability Lab since 2015, basically using music as a tool for social change. For the past four years the campaign has built an accountability hipco network that includes musicians [...]

2020-07-20T10:51:37+00:0020th July 2020|

Nigerian celebrities take on corruption through ‘mindset reorientation’

As part of efforts to hold the government accountable, top Nigerian Celebrities, MI Abaga, Alex Ekubo, Osas Igodaro, Lillian Esoro, Jeff Bankz and others geared towards tackling corruption through mindset reorientation tagged #NoCorruptionDay. By Christian Agadibe The event which is billed on 17th of July, 2020 tagged #NoCorruptionDay, the organiser said: ‘We are joined by dedicated citizens; the likes of MI Abaga, Alex Ekubo, Osas Igodaro, Lillian Esoro, Jeff Bankz & others – who are willing to use their platforms to share this powerful message and also supported by agencies; Accountability Lab and Yiaga. We have activities centred around #NoCorruptionDay [...]

2020-07-08T13:50:03+00:008th July 2020|

Our Coronavirus Rap2Rep Campaign

AL Liberia is running a special edition of its Rap2Rep campaign that's searching for the best HipCo songs about coronavirus and the behavior changes we have to make as society. The songs debunk rumours about the pandemic and encourage healthy habits. The campaign, in partnership with the US Embassy in Monrovia, has found a melodic way of carrying necessary health information and advice to communities. The only rule of the campaign? That the songs entered include reliable advice on how people can stay safe and flatten the curve in the country. Our Rap2Rep campaign (also run as Voice2Rep in Nigeria) [...]

2020-07-07T22:52:32+00:0018th May 2020|

How We’re Using WhatsApp at the Lab

With 1.5 billion users in 180 countries, WhatsApp is a hard platform to ignore, especially for a global organization. We've long used multiple digital channels to communicate with our audiences during the various stages of our programs, with Whatsapp becoming a particularly powerful tool this year. Our mission at AL is to make governance work for people and this work involves supporting active citizens far and wide, especially in remote parts of the countries where we operate where access to reliable information and technology can be difficult.  WhatsApp is proving to be an essential tool for how we can reach [...]

2020-04-28T00:00:00+00:0028th April 2020|

Nigerian songstress Cill wins Accountability Music Awards

Lagos-based musician Chioma “Cill” Ogbonna has won the 2019 Accountability Music Awards, winning the most votes among the finalists who represent the best of socially-conscious music from across the African continent.  The 2019 Accountability Music Awards (AMAs) is a collaboration between Accountability Lab, the ONE Campaign and Trace Africa, that seeks to celebrate African musicians who use their voices to call for more transparency and accountability across the continent. Viewers learned about the campaign on Trace Naija, Trace Urban and Trace Africa and thousands voted for their favourite song focused on accountability, transparency and the fight against corruption. Cill,  whose [...]

2020-01-30T00:00:00+00:0030th January 2020|

Meet the brave filmmakers of Nepal’s Women Film Fellowship

Building upon Accountability Lab’s work to promote peace and accountability in communities and facilitate inclusive citizen feedback loops, with the N-peace award, the Lab seeks to empower women with the tools to raise their voice on key issues faced within their community. By Ashmita Sharma. One of the many reasons for women being vulnerable to disasters, conflict, and violence is the lack of ability to make their voices heard. To support these women with a platform for creatively and sustainable skills, Lab provided fellowship opportunity for 10 women filmmakers, who are at the beginning of their career, to create 5 [...]

2020-01-29T00:00:00+00:0029th January 2020|

Accountability Lab’s Staff of the Year for 2019

2019 has been filled with many highlights and many lessons, and through the Staff of the Year nomination process we were reminded of how our teams are our strongest assets. Among us we have wonderful ambassadors for our values, creative problem-solvers, and thoughtful network-builders. But, above all else, we are all privileged to work with people who truly care about good governance and the communities where we work. We are proud to share the Staff of the Year 2019 winners with you!   Liberia: John Kamma - Director of the Citizen Bureau For listening and co-creating solutions for the challenges faced by [...]

2019-12-24T00:00:00+00:0024th December 2019|

Liberian Hipco stars release Integrity Icon song

Two of the Liberian hipco music scene's biggest names, Amaze Yor and Beat Master, have collaborated with Accountability Lab to produce a song for our flagship Integrity Icon programme in Liberia. The two artists are currently Hipco Accountability Ambassadors who mentor other underground artists to create music for social change. Hipco is a genre of dance music that blends hip-hop, R&B and traditional Liberian music with lyrics in colloquial dialects spoken in Liberia. Amaze said he has always wanted to use music for social change and has been producing social change songs for six years now. Listen to the song [...]

2019-12-10T00:00:00+00:0010th December 2019|
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