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Celebrate Accountability – Blair Glencorse (Social Entrepreneur)

This blog post was originally published by Paper Napkin Wisdom. Power is an interesting concept. Few other nouns evoke such a visceral response quite like the five letter word. Today’s Paper Napkin Wisdom guest has a unique take on power and has used this philosophy to guide his organization, Accountability Lab. “The best thing you can do with power is give it away,” says Blair Glencorse. While many people seek to “change the world” by gaining power through political or economic means, Blair notes that the people who actually inspire change are those who give their power away. “I believe we [...]

2016-11-10T00:00:00+00:0010th November 2016|

Communicating Impact: How Do We Tell Better Feedback Stories?

By: Anne Sophie Ranjbar, Associate Director of Accountability Lab As a small organization tackling the seemingly abstract issue of accountability, we’ve learned the great power of storytelling. We were excited to lead a “LabStorm” on how storytelling can be used to strengthen feedback loops at the annual Feedback Summit last week. Here’s what we asked and what we learned: Why is it important to communicate about our feedback loops? Feedback loops are at the heart of accountability systems. Fortunately, more and more organizations are recognizing the value of feedback (the number of attendees at the Feedback Summit doubled in size [...]

2016-11-07T00:00:00+00:007th November 2016|

Let the young people tell their stories: Accountability through Visual Storytelling

By: Surath Giri, Co-Founder and Director of Onion Films Nepal and an Accountability Lab 'Accountapreneur'.  It all started with a conversation over a cup of coffee in October 2013. Narayan Adhikari was trying to build an organization to promote accountability and good governance in Nepal by catalyzing local change makers. Govinda and I were creating a network of young, independent filmmakers by training aspiring filmmakers in visual storytelling. We discussed each other's work and the potential for collaboration. "How about teaching your young filmmakers about accountability and encouraging them to make short movies on related issues?" Narayan proposed. "We can provide you the necessary [...]

2016-10-03T00:00:00+00:003rd October 2016|

Powerful Citizen Media to Champion Responsible Governments

By: Karolle Rabarison. This blog post was originally published by Media Rise. Interview produced by Katie Gach. I recently sat down with Blair Glencorse, Executive Director of Accountability Lab. The Lab “catalyzes a new generation of active citizens and responsible leaders around the world.” As part of this year’s Media Rise festival, Blair will lead a workshop on media’s role in promoting civic engagement, happening at the OpenGov Hub on September 29, 2015 (register). Media Rise: Last year, Accountability Lab was the Media Rise Pitch Night People’s Choice Award. That contributed to the film school in Liberia where students are making films to [...]

2015-09-28T00:00:00+00:0028th September 2015|

Ebola and the power of film: How my students and I saved lives by making movies

By: Divine Anderson, as told to Julia Belluz. This article was originally published by Vox. Divine Anderson runs Liberia's first and only film school, the Liberia Film Institute. The 37-year-old started making movies in 1996 and has stuck to the medium because he thinks it's the best way to reach his fellow Liberians, many of whom can't read. When the Ebola outbreak was peaking last fall, he turned his attention to creating public-health awareness films that he spread through a mobile cinema — essentially a motorcycle retrofitted with a cart that carried him, his students, and a TV. We talked [...]

2015-03-10T00:00:00+00:0010th March 2015|

Knowmore LIB: Building Resilience and Defeating Ebola through Civic Education

This post was originally published by OpenIDEO. By Brooks Marmon The “Knowmore LIB” project aims to sensitize all Liberians on the dangers of the Ebola virus, practices to avoid and contain the disease, and to increase the trust of Liberian citizens in their government. The campaign uses innovative tools to help Liberians engage with policymakers and public health officials. The campaign will deploy chalk billboards around major cities and automated question boxes that allow citizens to ask questions about the Ebola virus; an Ebola awareness mural campaign; short films on Ebola through the students of an accountability film school; comic [...]

2014-10-10T00:00:00+00:0010th October 2014|

Innovating in Development Through Accountapreneurship

By: Blair Glencorse. This article was originally published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. How one organization is combining the best elements of accountability and entrepreneurship to redefine development paradigms of the past. The Hyatt Hotel in Kathmandu is a serene place, with beautiful Newari architecture, lush gardens, and impeccable service. It is also about as far removed as possible in Nepal from the real lives led by ordinary Nepali citizens—an executive suite can cost $800 a night while the average Nepali earns just over $600 a year. As I sat in one of the hotel’s magnificent conference rooms several [...]

2013-12-17T00:00:00+00:0017th December 2013|

Breaking the Silence: SMS Helps Liberian Schools to Improve Education

By: Blair Glencorse. This article was originally published by National Geographic. Students and academics in schools throughout Liberia are taking advantage of a system that allows them to gather information and discuss possible solutions to problems they face in the country’s corrupt education system. In this edition of Digital Diversity, Blair Glencorse talks about “Tell-it-True”, which uses text messages to allow users to share problems and concerns that would otherwise go unspoken. Digital Diversity is a series of blog posts from kiwanja.net featuring the many ways mobile phones and other appropriate technologies are being used throughout the world to improve, enrich, and empower billions of [...]

2013-12-03T00:00:00+00:003rd December 2013|

The Lab Receives Grant from the Case Foundation for Anti-Corruption Film Schools

At the Be Fearless NGen-Case Foundation event in New York City, Executive Director Blair Glencorse presented his idea for an anti-corruption film school for women and girls in Liberia. The proposed project would involve five-week, hands-on training sessions in Liberia’s two largest cities, Monrovia and Buchanan. The schools will build understanding of corruption, accountability and conflict issues, and provide the participants with the skills to direct, produce and edit short, low and no-budget documentaries about important problems in their communities. The project aims to empower women and girls, who in many ways are excluded, as a corrupt system skews access [...]

2013-10-01T00:00:00+00:001st October 2013|
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