Integrity Icon

Naming and faming the world’s most honest public servants

Integrity Icon began in 2014 as a public-driven ‘naming and faming’ campaign that saw hundreds of Nepalis marching joyfully through the streets in support of exemplary primary school inspectors and policemen. Our learning work showed us that the increased levels of motivation among winning Integrity Icons were leading to materially better service delivery outcomes. The campaign has evolved into a buildable capacity and training program called the Integrity Innovation Lab for government departments and private companies.

How it works

Local teams of volunteers travel across their countries gathering nominations from citizens, hosting public forums and generating a national discourse on the need for public officials with integrity. The nominees are narrowed down to a final 5 in each country with the help of independent panels of experts.

These finalists are then filmed and these episodes are shown on national television and played on the radio for a week, creating a national discussion offline and online. Citizens can vote for their favorites through SMS short-codes and through the website. The winner in each country is crowned in a national ceremony in the capital.

Meet the bureaucrats in Nigeria managing political accountability

Mexico’s latest Integrity Icons are bringing integrity principles equally to the arts and healthcare.

Integrity Icon Portraits

The Integrity Innovation Lab

The Integrity Innovation Lab (IIL) is an interactive, solutions-oriented, and highly contextualized program for civil servants at all levels, to support the development of a culture of integrity within government. We create a tailored program of support, and then build active learning networks through which we can facilitate lesson-sharing and problem-solving approaches over time. The content is modular and can be adapted to varying time-frames. It’s drawn from a variety of disciplines,including human-centred design, ethics, social accountability and private sector innovation. Our partners for this work tend to be civil service training schools or academies, either at the central or sub-national levels, or within specific sectors (such as the police or health/education). Get in touch with us to find out more.