The future of governance support depends on what we choose to see

Rebalancing toward the relationships, translation work, and bilingual soft infrastructure that make democratic practice possible.   Across conversations with practitioners, funders, researchers, and colleagues working on democracy, governance and civic space, the same diagnosis keeps surfacing. It’s no longer tentative; it’s becoming a quiet consensus: We need to rebalance away from technocratic prescriptions and toward supporting the connective, coalition-building work that keeps societies stitched together. This is not nostalgia for a pre-aid freeze era, nor a push for a new narrative cycle. It is an invitation to see the soft infrastructure and the people—invisible weavers—who maintain civic space in motion [...]

2025-12-10T10:53:27+00:0010th December 2025|

Bridging the gap: Why inclusion is the work, not the afterthought

In conversations around governance and democracy, I’ve been struck by how inclusion continues to emerge as both a challenge and a catalyst for change. From the International Democracy Day (IDD) Conference in Brussels to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Summit in Vitoria-Gasteiz, one theme was consistently reaffirmed for me: young people are not just the future of democracy, they are the present. At the IDD conference, Namibian Deputy Minister of Information, Emma Theofelus, reminded us that while networks and youth movements are flourishing, many young people still don’t know how to navigate the systems that shape their lives. “That’s why [...]

2025-11-13T11:47:34+00:0013th November 2025|

Leadership and Partnership in Security: The Leading Role of Civil Society

As global instability deepens – from hybrid warfare and disinformation to climate shocks and civic repression – the link between democracy and security has never been clearer. Speaking at a high-level roundtable on “Leadership and Partnership in Security: The Leading Role of Civil Society,” Blair Glencorse, Co-CEO of Accountability Lab, reflected on how leadership, trust, and collaboration can help build the foundations of collective security. “It’s an honour to be part of this gathering, especially as Ukraine’s continued struggle for freedom and Moldova’s recent elections remind us that democracy and security are inseparable,” Glencorse began. “The question before us is [...]

2025-10-30T08:39:48+00:0030th October 2025|

Our Stories, Our Voices, Our Power: Reflections from Afrotellers 2025

In Johannesburg, storytellers, artists, and activists from across Africa gathered for the Afrotellers Conference 2025, a three-day celebration of narrative power under the theme "Our Stories. Our Voices. Our Power."  The event created space for reflection, creativity, and dialogue on how storytelling can shape governance, integrity, and social change. Day One opened with Professor René Smith (University of the Witwatersrand of Arts), whose welcome remarks highlighted storytelling as a form of truth-telling and transformation. She reminded participants that stories are not passive reflections of culture but active tools for change — a message that set the tone for the three days [...]

2025-10-28T10:36:22+00:0028th October 2025|

The World Bank’s Legitimacy Is Derived From Citizens, Now More Than Ever

This article was first published in the Global Policy Journal Back in 2017, the World Bank began an ambitious effort to improve the management of natural resources and tourism in southern Tanzania, while creating jobs and protecting the environment. While sounding like a fantastic way to support development in one of the poorest parts of the world - the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW) Project, as it was known - soon ran into difficulties. Villagers claimed they were forcibly evicted from their land, cattle were seized from pastoralists by national park rangers, and those who protested [...]

2025-09-24T15:55:16+00:0024th September 2025|

Creating a democracy worthy of Nepal’s GenZ

Nepal stands at a critical juncture. After years of frustration over kleptocracy, corruption and electoral manipulation, citizens and their new leaders have a sequence of key decisions to make.  With elections scheduled within the next few months, education on electoral processes and simplifying processes around voter cards are some of the priorities the country faces. This, in a country where young voters account for more than half of the electorate. Persistent shortcomings in the election system have already generated widespread discontent, creating conditions that could shake the legitimacy of the upcoming elections if these issues are not addressed comprehensively. Another [...]

2025-09-23T10:11:35+00:0023rd September 2025|

The Invisible Weaver’s Wisdom: Re-Stitching Philanthropy’s Approach for Enduring Resilience

All over the world, the civic infrastructure hasn’t collapsed completely. It’s being re-stitched together, not only by organizations and movements scrambling to adapt, but by people who have relational capital and are already adapting. Accountability Lab Senior Fellow Florencia Guerzovich calls them invisible weavers. Invisible weavers aren’t a new category on your grantee list. They’re the ones making your existing investments work better — and go further. They’re the ones connecting the dots when formal systems falter and when frameworks show cracks. They move between sectors, roles and vocabularies: donor to NGO, movement to ministry, global north to rural community. [...]

2025-09-12T12:55:17+00:0012th September 2025|

How co-leadership helps us navigate a sector-wide crisis

Accountability Lab's co-CEO Chief Innovation and Operations Officer, Jean Scrimgeour shared her first-learnings about how co-leadership helps position nonprofit organizations to better navigate today’s sector-wide challenges. In January, executive orders to freeze all U.S. international development aid upended an already resource-strapped sector. Overnight, organizations that had spent decades building programs and partnerships found themselves facing existential questions and extremely difficult leadership challenges. At Accountability Lab, we found our co-leadership model gave us an unexpected advantage. Eighteen months earlier, when Blair Glencorse, Cheri-Leigh Erasmus, and I decided to transition from a traditional CEO structure to shared leadership, we couldn’t have predicted how profoundly [...]

2025-09-12T08:56:57+00:0012th September 2025|

Launching a partnership matching service for nonprofits

While a lot of us have talked about the potential, value, and - in some cases - need for more mergers and acquisitions in the non-profit space, recent events have made it clear: now is the time. Immediately after recent US aid cuts, our team circulated a survey to civil society and international development organizations - and the resulting data, from more than 700 organizations, suggests that nearly 60% of organizations may close within the next 6 months. Given the recent stop work orders, contract and grant cancellations, and cascading effects of international civil society support shifts, a large number [...]

2025-04-10T11:45:20+00:0027th March 2025|

Journée Internationale de Lutte contre la Corruption

9 Décembre 2024 - A l’occasion de la journée internationale de lutte contre la corruption, célébrée chaque le 09 décembre, pour cette année 2024,  Accountability Lab RDC avec plus de 700 personnes issues des mouvements citoyens, des acteurs de la société civile, les jeunes entrepreneurs, les étudiants, des agents  de l’Etat et les associations des femmes engagées se sont unis pour une sensibilisation à grande échelle et hausser leurs voix pour dénoncer la corruption qui gangrène la gouvernance des institutions et des services publics et compromet gravement le développement de l’Est du pays et de la RDC en générale.  Sous le [...]

2024-12-10T21:26:56+00:0010th December 2024|
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