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Countering corruption and closing civic space during the coronavirus

Accountability Lab hosted a session on countering corruption and closing civic space during the coronavirus in partnership with the B-team. AL Director Blair Glencorse moderated the discussions and three of our Country Directors - Odeh Friday (Nigeria), Eva Sander (Mexico) and Fayyaz Yaseen (Pakistan) participated as panelists, along with Annabel Lee Hogg of the B-Team. The session was part of a week-long series of online learning & networking exploring the theme of "Collective Strength" organized by The Skoll Foundation. Corruption costs $500 billion a year in the health sector and countless billions more in sectors related to the coronavirus crisis like water and [...]

2020-03-31T00:00:00+00:0031st March 2020|

Countering coronavirus – here’s what we’re up to at the Lab

Like every other organization globally, we’re working hard to adapt in the face of the unprecedented public health and economic crisis we now face. Of course, our plans for the next 2-3 months, and possibly longer, have now been transformed dramatically- and we are working with our teams to find the right ways forward. Here’s what we’ve done operationally: Guidance- provided detailed guidance to all staff on ways forward during the pandemic including advice on adapting policies, regulating behaviors, providing emotional support and re-thinking approaches and programs. We have also shared this guidance in a variety of fora online, and [...]

2020-03-25T00:00:00+00:0025th March 2020|

Beyond Protest: Harnessing People Power for the New Decade

Shaazka Beyerle is a Senior Research Advisor in the Program on Nonviolent Action at the United States Institute of Peace and a Senior Advisor with ICNC. Here, she writes about what research conducted by her and her colleagues has revealed about the power of non-violent protest in social movements that have recognised the systemic nature of corruption and began demanding greater accountability from the system as a whole. 2019 is being called the year of protest. Citizens across the globe are galvanizing, in large part over the nexus of corruption, inequality, and a sense that governments and political elites are [...]

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

Driving positive narratives about change and accountability

The world over, a lack of accountability is undermining fair, equal societies; the most marginalised voices are not heard in critical conversations and leaders are not held responsible for their decisions. This in turn means people in power are not held to account or answerable for the use of that power. Accountability is critical as it ensures that governments and other service providers deliver on their responsibilities by responding to citizens’ demands in an evidence-informed way. This should ultimately lead to effective governance and the development of trust between people and power-holders. Stan Getui of Luminate explains why the group [...]

2019-11-26T00:00:00+00:0026th November 2019|

SME challenges in Pakistan

Are you starting a new business in Pakistan? Great, but do you know what challenges you may face before and after starting a business in Pakistan? No? Okay, not to worry, lets discuss By Mohammed Adnan There are many challenges young entrepreneurs encounter in Pakistan and chief among them is the country’s weak contract enforcement system. In many ways this is creating many difficulties for the progress and growth of young enterprises and start-ups. It’s therefore become a significant source of stress for young entrepreneurs too. According to the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2019, Pakistan stands at [...]

2019-10-21T00:00:00+00:0021st October 2019|

Advocating Fiscal Governance in Kaduna State

On the 17th of September 2019, Accountability Lab Nigeria hosted 35 concerned citizens at a Tax Justice and Budget Monitoring workshop on Fiscal Governance with support from Open Society Foundations, OECD, BudgIT and Follow Taxes. The primary objective was to create awareness on fiscal policies and encourage citizen engagement. Held at the Ground Hall of Hotel Seventeen in Kaduna, the event featured BudgIT Tracking Officer, Dauda Ahmed, as well as Follow Taxes Co-Founder, Saied Tafida, who provided valuable insights on the intricacies of taxation and budgeting in Nigeria. They also explored the controversies related to contracting and project implementation in [...]

2019-10-08T00:00:00+00:008th October 2019|

(Ad)venturing to New Places

Starting a new Accountability Lab - the example of South Africa Many have asked us how we started working in the countries in which we work. To begin with, there were strategic reasons, like knowledge of the context, good networks and trusted partners. But over the years we have become more organized in our approach to growth (see our country selection matrix). Now with almost weekly requests to start working in new and exciting places we have started to think about - and operationalise - a more structured approach to scale. When deciding to work in a new country we [...]

2019-10-07T00:00:00+00:007th October 2019|

Back to the Future – Young People Reimagining Today’s Politics

On 16-17 August 2019, a convening was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, bringing together leading continental youth change makers who advocate and activate in creative and innovative ways for political change. The gathering of about 30 people took place in an intimate space situated in Addis Ababa’s Revolution Square, overlooking the city’s landscape. The convening curated, consolidated and shared lessons and experiences of young people in Africa on initiatives, which if scaled, have the potential to strengthen and improve Africa’s democratic governance landscape and was funded by the Baywood Foundation. Youth Activism and Popular Protest The first session of the [...]

2019-09-30T00:00:00+00:0030th September 2019|

Deliberative Democracy – 5 Key Ideas We Can’t Forget

It is easy to get depressed about the state of global democracy these days, isn’t it? The rise of right-wing demagogues, the stifling of the media, the continued dysfunction of state institutions. Our headlines seem to be about nothing else. But the recent Deliberative Democracy Institute (DDI) at the Kettering Foundation filled me with hope about the future of participatory government. By Blair Glencorse Yes, there are challenges everywhere, but there are also incredible people at the grassroots levels in communities - from Fiji to Brazil, and from Romania to Kenya - doing what is needed to support deliberation and [...]

2019-07-31T00:00:00+00:0031st July 2019|
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