Access to information: Bridging the digital divide in Africa

This post was originally published by The Guardian. By Loren Treisman  Technology has increased the speed and reach of information but how do you get to communities that are offline or illiterate? Loren Treisman counts the ways With only 7% of Africans online, what are the low-tech ways to increase access to information? Photograph: Stephane De Sakutin/AFP With all the excitement about the role of technology in contributing to social change and improved development outcomes across Africa, it is easy to forget that only 7% of the continent's inhabitants are online. While mobile phone usage is widespread at 72%, [...]

2014-01-24T00:00:00+00:0024th January 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|

Innovating in Development Through Accountapreneurship

By: Blair Glencorse. This article was originally published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. How one organization is combining the best elements of accountability and entrepreneurship to redefine development paradigms of the past. The Hyatt Hotel in Kathmandu is a serene place, with beautiful Newari architecture, lush gardens, and impeccable service. It is also about as far removed as possible in Nepal from the real lives led by ordinary Nepali citizens—an executive suite can cost $800 a night while the average Nepali earns just over $600 a year. As I sat in one of the hotel’s magnificent conference rooms several [...]

2013-12-17T00:00:00+00:0017th December 2013|

Breaking the Silence: SMS Helps Liberian Schools to Improve Education

By: Blair Glencorse. This article was originally published by National Geographic. Students and academics in schools throughout Liberia are taking advantage of a system that allows them to gather information and discuss possible solutions to problems they face in the country’s corrupt education system. In this edition of Digital Diversity, Blair Glencorse talks about “Tell-it-True”, which uses text messages to allow users to share problems and concerns that would otherwise go unspoken. Digital Diversity is a series of blog posts from kiwanja.net featuring the many ways mobile phones and other appropriate technologies are being used throughout the world to improve, enrich, and empower billions of [...]

2013-12-03T00:00:00+00:003rd December 2013|

Putting local justice first in Liberia

By: Blair Glencorse and Anne Sophie Lambert. This blog post was originally published by the Local First Blog. For many Liberians living in the low-income, high-density neighborhoods of Monrovia, life is a daily struggle. Land disputes, drug problems, domestic abuse, and a lack of basic services, among other issues, are pervasive. When citizens face legal challenges, the lack of legitimacy, affordability, accessibility and timeliness of the formal justice system often prevents any feasible recourse. Extensive bureaucratic red tape coupled with transportation and legal costs, lawyer fees, and opportunity costs of foregone work make the justice system not only physically but [...]

2013-11-14T00:00:00+00:0014th November 2013|

Graft-busting tours of Nepal and Liberia to showcase grassroots activism

By: Stella Dawson. This article was originally published by Thomson Reuters Foundation News. WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Civil society group Accountability Lab has come up with a new way to raise awareness of how to combat corruption – bus tours. The non-profit is developing a series of tours of its grassroots work in Liberia and Nepal to give travelers a different experience of local culture, while helping to fight bribery, graft and promote transparent government. “Instead of tourists visiting slum dwellers, I want to show positive things that people are doing to change the quality of their lives in [...]

2013-10-04T00:00:00+00:004th October 2013|

nepal and liberia: diverse contexts, shared lessons

By: Blair Glencorse. This article was originally published in Beed Life magazine. In June 2007, I took a trip to Nepalgunj to meet representatives of the Madhesi community. I wanted to try and understand more about political dynamics in the Tarai. While sipping chia, the groups I chatted with explained vociferously, often for hours at a time, the difficulties they faced on a daily basis, which ranged from issues of exclusion, to poverty, to inequality. I have two enduring memories of that visit. First, Nepalgunj is very, very hot. Second, it was driven home to me that societies cannot function [...]

2013-09-20T00:00:00+00:0020th September 2013|

A decade of aid dependence in Liberia

By: Blair Glencorse. This article was originally published by Devex. A decade ago, the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended 14 years of civil war in Liberia. Under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — the first female head of state in Africa and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 — much progress has been made. Elections have been held, debt has been forgiven and economic growth has been impressive. The government has signed up to a host of international standards and best practices, related to everything from natural resources management to government transparency. Since 2003, the international community has poured [...]

2013-08-19T00:00:00+00:0019th August 2013|
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