Fayyaz Yaseen believes strongly in the democratization of information. And not any old information; the kind that takes context, framing and emerging issues into account. The kind that clarifies for people their place in the world and what they can do from where they stand. As Accountability Lab Pakistan’s Executive Director, Yaseen’s strong background in policy at the think tank Sustainable Development Policy Initiative (SDPI) in Pakistan sparked an initial love for knowledge creation and sharing, and social accountability.

“We thought if we can begin including more people into the discussions around service delivery and good governance – if the citizens begin holding them [public service providers] accountable – we might be able to create the solutions we need as a society in Pakistan,” he says.

But his efforts to share vital concepts widely were bogged down by heavily jargonized political language spoken and understood by small circles of social scientists. It was during this period that Yaseen came across Accountability Lab.

“I just loved the idea of young people with creative ideas working around civic engagement, building awareness, and holding  public servants accountable. People came up with all sorts of fun and engaging ideas. If they wanted to build awareness among their communities, they did not just want to do seminars with field experts, they wanted to write songs about it, they wanted to create short films and documentaries around it,” he says.

“They really want to build a broader understanding and then begin talking about the solution. They would never begin with the cookie-cutter solutions or theoretical frameworks to shed light on those issues”.

After following Accountability Lab’s work for a while, Yaseen eventually founded Accountability Lab Pakistan, creating a home for a more people-friendly approach to knowledge creation and sharing. 

Yaseen’s think-tank background with Accountability Lab’s creative approach was a formidable force for change. By regularly producing knowledge, whether through putting out policy briefs or regular commentary on government policy, the Lab grew its reputation as a serious organization. A concerted effort to understand how government functions and identifying and working with champions of reform within the government also cemented the Lab’s reputation as an organization dedicated to the betterment of the country through considered recommendations, tailored training programs, and broader support around innovation and leadership development. 

“As an activist I would love to indulge in that kind of advocacy; pointing fingers and telling people who’s not doing their job. But a cost of that advocacy is that almost all of the government departments shut their door which means it’s not a productive engagement,” says Yaseen. “We don’t want to shun and exclude the government. We want to engage it in co-creating solutions,” he stated.

It is here that Accountability Lab’s approach of celebrating successes instead of finger pointing has shone. Balochistan province’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) – the government agency responsible for fiscal oversight, ensuring that funds appropriated by Parliament are appropriately spent – had a 35 year backlog. The province is one of the most underdeveloped in the country and has been plagued by poverty, insurgency, sectarian violence and long-running, unchecked corruption. Leveraging the trust the Lab had built, the team digitized systems, trained secretariat staff, and engaged citizens in workshops to build trust around the PAC. The Committee has since digitized six to eight years of backlog over three years. This is just a portion of the institutional capacity building work AL Pakistan has done in the province.

“It was massive work which not many civil society organizations are able to do in our part of the world but Accountability Lab has done it,” says Yaseen.

Yaseen emphasizes that such incredible feats are not easily replicable miracles, however. Social and behavioral change takes a lot more time than putting up a building like a hospital or school. It is, as he quotes from a CSO leader in India, ‘not a T20 match’.

“When you have to invest your time and effort into changing the nature of relations between citizens and the government. That’s a very long haul and you need to be mentally prepared for that kind of commitment and the funding commitment should correspond to that understanding”.

Yaseen is very mindful of the long haul, and is working to ensure the sustainability of AL Pakistan by building a second-tier of leadership at all levels, maintaining relationships with the Lab’s network of partners and donors, and keeping abreast of the country’s political economy to ensure the organization’s relevance.

He is, however, most moved by the political involvement and engagement of young people.

“67% of the Pakistani population is youth, our median age is 22.5 years. Pakistan is a very young country, and if we are not engaging them in the work that we are doing, we are missing out on probably the most important constituency of this country,” he says.

“I also believe that youth in Pakistan is largely unattended”.

AL Pakistan has engaged over 30 000 youth at nine of the country’s largest public universities over the past six years, and the team makes an active effort to involve and include youth in programs like Integrity Icon so they might share in the possibilities of an ethical and active public service, whether as activists or future public servants themselves. 

Trust building is a clear priority for Yaseen and his team, and is something that will form a sturdy foundation as political winds shift. There are already signs that family-dominated politics is losing its footing to newer actors without a political legacy, and, while underreported, mass protests have been taking place in all corners of the country showing citizens’ discontent with the current state. Yaseen believes that as Pakistan’s democracy matures people will tolerate less and less, and as political education expands in an already politically aware citizenry there will be a lot of pressure for politics to deliver. 

“People can’t sustainably continue to impose authoritarian rule on 250 million people,” Yaseen says. 

“It’s such a big population to be ruled by fear for so long. No authoritarian ruler has a force big enough that could control 250 million people and young people. At the end of the day, it has to be a rule of law-based democracy.” Yaseen believes.

Accountability Lab Pakistan is ten years old. With a team of 27 people, it has a nationwide footprint. AL Pakistan works on issues related to good governance, accountability, citizens’ empowerment, climate justice, peace building, inclusion, and women’s empowerment. Read more in the Lab’s Annual Report.

Samina Anwary