Posts by Samina Anwary
What five years of celebrating good governance heroes taught us about the value of principled partnership
Integrity Icon, Accountability Lab’s campaign to celebrate exceptional public servants, has always rested on the notion that citizens respond more readily to real people than to abstract institutions, and that publicly celebrating integrity can shift how a society talks about public service. It is our longest running campaign, focused on “naming and faming” civil servants…
Read MoreProving the Theory – Five years of celebrating Good Governance Heroes in Somaliland
We catch people doing the right thing, then “name and fame” them for it, all on the assumption that telling the stories of do-gooders is contagious and encourages others to do the same. After 14 years, and 15 locations, we added Integrity Icon Somaliland as the 16th to spread the stories of public servants who…
Read MoreFrom curiosity to facility: how responsive action built an institution
When ~$50 billion was wiped from global development ledgers last year, the existing gap between powerholders and doers yawned open. People, organizations, institutional memory, and hard-fought civic gains were at risk of falling into the maw. It was also proving difficult to find up-to-date information in what became a fast-changing situation. Stronger together: #SharedStrengthCollectiveAccountability Lab…
Read MoreNetwork as institution: Why ending projects well is crucial to sustaining democracy, rights and governance work
When funding shrinks, and the civic space it had pushed open strains and threatens to snap shut, it is the lattice of enduring networks that keeps it propped open. Longer term democracy, rights and governance funding is a rare thing. Five-year long, uninterrupted funding is rarer still. The long duration of the funding creates the…
Read MoreEnding Favoritism in Tenders: How Innobid Levels the Playing Field for Entrepreneurs
Innobid wants to make public procurement more accessible, transparent, and fair. The platform is for those putting out tenders, bidding for tenders, and those wanting to keep a watchful eye on the goings on of both. Not only does it aim to serve entrepreneurs, governments, ordinary people and the private sector, it’s equalizing the playing…
Read MoreDonors must hold the line on anti-corruption: Perspectives from a former USAID senior advisor
As the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Senior Anti-Corruption Advisor – and later Deputy of its Anti-Corruption Task Force – Accountability Lab Non-Resident Senior Fellow Jennifer Anderson Lewis had the privilege of helped shape and witnessed firsthand what happens when a major donor makes anti-corruption a strategic priority. It began with a frank admission:…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read More4 ways to build resilient networks: Lessons from Accountability Lab Nepal
If it’s one thing the past couple of months have shown the development sector it’s the necessity of community. As civil society organizations working to build the world back better, we can’t do it on our own. It takes a village, and we have to be the villagers who make the village possible. I had…
Read MoreThe Long Game: Changing narratives and building ecosystems in Southern Africa
It was on the crest of a wave of change Zimbabwe was experiencing in 2020 that Dr McDonald Lewanika found himself ready to change tack. Years of direct non-violent action had done the backbreaking work of earning Zimbabwe a new constitution, and other democratic concessions, while a military assisted transition had led to leadership changes…
Read MoreTesting the limits of tech: building measures for accountability in the Balkans
What does the deputy mayor of a town in northwestern Albania have in common with a 20-year old engineering student from North Macedonia? They’re both invested in creating tech tools to counter corruption in their home countries. Both are also participants in the Balkans edition of Hackcorruption, an AL initiative that aims to combat corruption…
Read MorePrioritizing Community: Building impact on shifting political sands in Mali
With two coups in the last four years and the political instability that comes with it, Mali is not the easiest place to put down good governance roots. Unless those roots are placed with the one constant: people. We sat down with Accountability Lab Mali Country Director Doussouba Konate and Deputy Country Director Habibou Diaou…
Read MoreYouth Protests: Supporting active citizenship in practice
In an era of growing youth uprisings, there is an increased need to support this latest indicator of active citizenship in the countries in which they erupt. Large-scale protests against corruption, nepotism and excessive taxation of populations already struggling economically, flared up in Kenya, Uganda and Bangladesh over June and July this year. Protestors in…
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