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‘Integrity Idol’: Reality TV show seeks honest civil servant in graft-hit Liberia

Comfort Nimely, a caretaker at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Liberia, is filmed as part of the reality television show Integrity Idol, which is asking the public to vote for the most honest civil servant in the West African nation. Photo by Harrison Chie By: Kieran Guilbert. This article was originally published by the Thompson Reuters Foundation. DAKAR, Nov 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Featuring contestants from a caretaker and nurse to a lawyer, a reality television show in Liberia is on the hunt for a different kind of star - a civil servant who embodies honesty [...]

2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:0030th November 2015|

Updates from the Ground: Liberia, Nepal & Pakistan

Last Friday, we invited our supporters around the world to join a call with Accountability Lab’s three country directors: Lawrence Yealue in Liberia, Fayyaz Yaseen in Pakistan, and Narayan Adhikari in Nepal. They each shared updates on how they’re catalyzing a new generation of active citizens and responsible leaders in their respective contexts. Read the short summaries below to learn about the state of accountability in each country and how the Lab is addressing it. Liberia Since Accountability Lab Liberia was set up in 2012, it has supported five accountapreneurs to address the country’s deep-set accountability problems. The accountapreneurs’ programs adapted to help address the worst Ebola [...]

2020-03-03T16:03:14+00:0023rd November 2015|

Nyemade’s latest update on Integrity Idol Liberia!

Nyemade is our new Accountability Resident in Monrovia- welcome Nyemade! She is helping to run Integrity Idol Liberia, and recently travelled around the country with our team to promote the effort. This is her report back: “We are excited that Integrity Idol is now taking place in Liberia after huge success in Nepal last year. Integrity Idol Liberia is a national citizens’ campaign to identify and celebrate leaders who exemplify honesty and integrity. This unique effort aims to generate debate around the idea of integrity and to inspire a new generation of Liberians to be effective public servants. Since launching the [...]

2015-10-13T00:00:00+00:0013th October 2015|

Accountability Lab is a finalist for the Human Rights Tulip & Innovating Justice Challenge: vote today to help us win!

We believe that accountability is at the heart of human rights and justice, and thus we’re excited to announce that we’re in the running for two major awards in those areas. The Human Rights Tulip is an award of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs for courageous human rights defenders who promote and support human rights in innovative ways. Winners receive a prize of €100.000 and support from Hivos in the further development of their work. The Lab is addressing human rights violations by incubating citizens’ innovative ideas for fighting corruption and building accountability in their communities using arts, media, [...]

2015-09-14T00:00:00+00:0014th September 2015|

Search for Liberia’s Most Exceptional Civil Servants Begins

By: Zeze Ballah. This article was originally published by The Bush Chicken. MONROVIA, Montserrado – The Accountability Lab, a nongovernmental organization, has launched a campaign to recognize outstanding civil servants. The Accountability Lab is doing this through its first ever Integrity Idol in Liberia. The goal of this program is to help promote positive examples of accountable community leaders with the objective of building a society in which everyone will have an equal opportunity. Lawrence Yealue, the Accountability Lab West Africa representative, told The Bush Chicken that Liberians can nominate an honest civil servant who is 59-years-old or younger by filling the [...]

2015-08-25T00:00:00+00:0025th August 2015|

Integrity Gets Great Ratings

Integrity Gets Great Ratings How Nepalis harnessed the power of reality TV to strike a blow against corruption. BY BLAIR GLENCORSE, SUMAN PARAJULI. Originally published in Foreign Policy. To Gyan Mani Nepal, the newly appointed head of education in Panchthar, a small and beautiful corner of far eastern Nepal, the situation in his school district was a depressing reminder of his own youth. Teacher absenteeism was as high as 90 percent; those who did come to work often showed up drunk. Others shook principals down for bribes just to come to their jobs. Schools were regularly shut down by political [...]

2015-07-09T00:00:00+00:009th July 2015|

5 Things We Learned at the Global Innovation Competition 2015

By: Narayan Adhikari, South Asia Representative, and Fayyaz Yaseen, Pakistan Ambassador, for the Accountability Lab. Last month, Narayan and Fayyaz took part in the finals of the Global Innovation Competition (GIC) 2015. In this blog, originally published by Making All Voices Count, they reflect on the GIC process, the people they met, and the lessons learned.  Narayan Adhikari and Fayyaz Yaseen from Accountability Lab Hundreds of individuals and organisations from around the world applied to Making All Voices Count’s Global Innovation Competition, and we were thrilled to be one of the ten selected finalists to take part in the week long mentorship and pitching programme in [...]

2015-05-04T00:00:00+00:004th May 2015|

How I became Nepal’s first-ever ‘Integrity Idol’

By; Gyan Mani Nepal. This blog post was originally published on Oxfam America's The Politics of Poverty blog. A district education officer in rural Nepal sets a course for school reforms (and becomes a national celebrity along the way!) Nepal’s first Integrity Idol Awards were given in January 2014 to shine a spotlight on honest and industrious civil servants in a country where government officials are often associated with corruption and incompetence. Gyan Mani Nepal was chosen among five finalists from over 300 nominees. Their profiles were aired on national TV and posted on social media for people to vote via [...]

2015-03-23T00:00:00+00:0023rd March 2015|

How to Reward an Honest Official

This article was originally published by Share America. By Stephen Kaufman Gyan Mani Nepal isn’t your normal reality TV star. He doesn’t sing like American Idol winner Caleb Johnson or dance like Ricky Ubeda, a winner of So You Think You Can Dance. Yet the district education officer from rural Nepal beat more than 300 competitors on January 11 to become his country’s “Integrity Idol,” a celebrity created by a talent show spotlighting “honest government officials.” The contest was launched by the Nepalese chapter of Accountability Lab, a nonprofit that works to promote government accountability. Anne Sophie Ranjbar, a director of [...]

2015-01-27T00:00:00+00:0027th January 2015|

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|
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