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Combating violence against the transgender community in Pakistan

Written by Fouzia Khan Bhittani We live in a world encompassing different beliefs and cultures that generate specific attitudes and stances toward gender diversity. However, these attitudes define the marginalization of a particular community or people, like the transgender community in Pakistan, commonly referred to as the Khawaja Sira—a group of people that includes various forms of gender deviance. Khawaja Sira covers anyone that bends the societal construction of gender, including people who identify as transsexual, choose to cross-dress, identify as true hermaphrodites, are genderqueer youth, intersex people, and eunuchs. The transgender community has gained little visibility in Pakistan, as [...]

2023-06-14T11:53:25+00:0014th June 2023|

Global #tech4good lessons from HackCorruption

Accountability Lab is running HackCorruption, a hybrid tech-for-good project, with support from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the U.S. Department of State, in partnership with the Center for International Private Enterprise. The project identifies and supports talented individuals from the civic tech, CSO, and activist arenas, to build innovative solutions to combat corruption. Our first HackCorruption event brought 100 participants from six Southern and East African countries to Johannesburg, South Africa, for a three-day event.  The program has also been rolled out by Accountability Lab Nigeria, with support from NORAD, SIDA, UNDP Nigeria, and in partnership [...]

2023-01-27T06:25:10+00:0020th January 2023|

Accountability Lab Has a New Strategy! Here’s a Summary of Our Priorities for 2023-2026.

Written by Blair Glencorse   How Did We Develop The New Strategy? Accountability Lab began over a decade ago as an effort to support local change-makers within specific communities to develop creative ideas around governance issues. Our growth has been exciting- and we are now a global translocal network of Labs that is building an eco-system for accountability around the world. Despite all of the ups and downs of the past ten years, our vision remains the same as it has always been, because it is ever more important- a world in which resources are used wisely, decisions benefit everyone [...]

2023-01-18T06:53:13+00:0017th January 2023|

Making The Translocal Network Real: The Junior Staff Council

Written by Alawi Masud As a primarily youth focused organization, Accountability Lab understands that junior level staff bring critical perspectives on our work,  provide important support to projects, and fuel innovation and connectivity. But as with many organizations that have many staff working on a variety of issues across 11 geographies, there is always room to better engage our teams. In order to provide a more formal space for junior staff all around the world to to build interpersonal relationships, support each other’s work, learn from one another, and connect with senior Accountability Lab staff, AL developed the Junior Staff [...]

2023-01-16T12:44:01+00:0016th January 2023|

Design thinking in the public service – can innovation fix the police services in Pakistan?

Design thinking is a flexible methodology but provides a set of tools based on a mindset. The mindset is geared towards creativity and problem-solving. How problem-solving can be used in organizational thinking is a challenge for leaders. Umar Riaz, Director of the National Police Academy in Islamabad, takes a closer look.   While leaders in the corporate world have long embraced this concept to remain competitive and ahead of the curve, public sector adoption was long overdue. The private sector has been instrumental in using design thinking for its survival and having an edge over its competitors. But the public [...]

2022-12-07T14:36:05+00:008th September 2022|

Making the police in Pakistan citizen-centric 

Written by Umar Riaz, Director of the National Police Academy, Islamabad    Whether we're talking about democracies or dictatorships, there isn't a government department with more bearing on the public than the police. In Pakistan, however, no other department (barring a few exceptions) is considered more disconnected from the public than the police. The police department is also a unique public service for having dual roles. It has to ensure the safety of citizens while curbing the liberty of those considered a threat to public safety. They have therefore been given vast powers under national laws. They can search, seize [...]

2022-12-12T07:59:48+00:0017th August 2022|

Using citizen feedback to solve local challenges

Written by Sanjeeta Pant   Maya Lama, a woman from Mangaltar village in Nepal, was one of the survivors of the 2015 earthquake which completely destroyed her house. The government- with donor support- set up a process for citizens to receive funds for reconstruction, but Maya was unable to receive these funds as she was not registered on the list of earthquake victims. Her husband was working abroad, and the property she lost was not in her name. But, thanks to the power of local advocacy and democracy, she joined a town hall meeting at which she spoke directly to [...]

2022-08-05T08:25:23+00:0028th July 2022|

The World Is Melting Down and the Cause is Corruption- The G20 Needs to Take Action

By Blair Glencorse and Sanjeeta Pant The G20 needs to strengthen regulatory authorities across its membership and expand sanctions for violating Anti-Money Laundering requirements. The G20 is meeting again next week in Indonesia for the second time this year- at a moment when the world is facing the most difficult economic, political and social challenges for decades. At their core, these problems are driven by corruption- from the “weaponization” of graft by Russia in Ukraine to the lack of regulation of the enablers of corruption in G20 countries such as the UK. This malfeasance costs lives and livelihoods- and is directly responsible for everything [...]

2022-07-15T13:27:56+00:001st July 2022|

Workplace Diversity in Pakistan

Pakistan is a culturally rich country, incorporating 99% Muslim people and about 1% Hindi people.  However, despite the cultural diversity, there is still a lack of workforce diversity in Pakistan. This is partly due to social attitudes that discourage workers from different backgrounds from interacting and sharing ideas. Additionally, there is a shortage of skilled professionals in Pakistan, which has led to companies struggling to find employees who meet their specific needs. AL Pakistan accountapreneur, Bhoora Lal, takes a closer look.   There are many reasons to have a diverse workforce. First, it can help organizations become more innovative and [...]

2022-11-10T06:46:17+00:0028th June 2022|

Four Lessons in Building Inclusion

“What systems should we have, what approaches should we take, and what provisions do we need to put in place to ensure we are inclusive from top to bottom in everything we do?”   Written by Katie Fuhs In anticipation of a new inclusion strategy, the Executive Director of Accountability Lab asked this question to frame a desk research request on organizational inclusion policies. As a young, nonbinary staff member interested and invested in all things diversity, equity, and inclusion, I jumped right in, taking note of every potential inclusion policy I came across.  From tech tools like Accessibe and [...]

2022-05-24T10:35:51+00:0024th May 2022|
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