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Including the excluded in the bureaucracy

Let’s face it, Nepal’s civil service is not held in very high regard by Nepalis themselves. But in the past seven years after the affirmative action policies of the new Constitution, there are signs that the bureaucracy is more inclusive and efficient. Take Manmaya Bhattarai Pangeni, who entered Nepal’s civil service as a junior branch officer in 2006. She rose up the ranks, serving as Chief District Officer (CDO) of Nawalparasi and is now secretary at the Gandaki Province Chief Minister’s office. As CDO, Pangeni was committed to curbing illegal sand extraction and quarrying that worsened floods in the district. Serious crime, including violence against women, went down during [...]

2022-04-08T07:45:05+00:0013th March 2022|

Lessons in leading with empathy

Written by Suvechchha Chapagain  Growing up, when I thought of the term leader or more precisely political leader, the image of a middle-aged man - above 45 years of age who is loud and authoritative and always surrounded by other young and middle-aged men - would involuntarily come to my mind. This is what my young, teenaged mind perceived as a must-have in a leader from news and television. Back then those men who didn't fit these criteria never appeared as a leader to me - and neither did the aspiring young females who embodied feminine traits. For me, leadership [...]

2022-03-18T07:09:40+00:004th February 2022|

A virtual Internship with Accountability Lab Nepal

Despite being 9,724 kilometres apart, I felt connected and part of the team every step of the way. As a student who knew little about humanitarian and development work, I was unsure what to expect working with Accountability Lab, let alone how to complete a virtual three-month internship from Sydney, Australia, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, the moment I met with Narayan, Soni and Bikin, they eased all my concerns. They were so welcoming and excited to have me on the team. 14 weeks later, I completed my internship, and could not be happier and prouder of myself and [...]

2021-12-22T12:31:08+00:0022nd December 2021|

Local voices with local solutions

Accountability Lab’s Civic Action Teams (CivActs) is a pioneering community voice and feedback process to close the loop on citizen challenges related to everything from migration and natural resource management, to the Covid-19 response and misinformation. At the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law annual conference in October, AL shared some of the creative ways that local governments are working with CSOs to disseminate important policy information in a resonant and inclusive way. Speakers included Suresh Chand, Program Manager at AL Nepal, Tinotenda Chishiri, CivActs Projects Officer at AL Zimbabwe, and Amna Rajput, Projects Coordinator at AL Pakistan. Chand [...]

2021-11-17T14:05:07+00:0017th October 2021|

Data literacy: A tool for change in Nepal

By Bikin Ghimire, Soni Khanal and Nitee Shrestha As strong advocates and supporters of the country’s open data movement, we at the Accountability Lab were thrilled to learn about the “100-hour Nepal Data Literacy Program” organized by the World Bank in 2019 and jumped at the opportunity to learn about data literacy. As World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos noted, the program was designed to sustainably transfer data literacy skills to stakeholders in Nepal and build an enabling environment for evidence-based policymaking and strengthening federalism in the country. The training program helped participants build a [...]

2021-03-09T09:48:06+00:009th March 2021|

Nepal’s Accountability Incubator 2020 Cohort

Accountability Lab Nepal has selected four accountapreneurs for the 2020 cohort of their Accountability Incubator program. They're looking at projects spanning women empowerment and citizen engagement. Sumi Limbu is a Graduate student of Arts and Social Work, a compassionate learner, an activist who believes in the power of change and equality, and a lover of poetry and storytelling. She is one of the leader/changemakers of EmpoweHER 2018 (idea incubation leadership program initiated by Ujyalo Foundation) where her idea "SAKHI", an awareness campaign about menstruation through comic books, received seed funding. She strongly believes that through education and working from the [...]

2020-07-08T00:15:44+00:002nd March 2020|

Meet the brave filmmakers of Nepal’s Women Film Fellowship

Building upon Accountability Lab’s work to promote peace and accountability in communities and facilitate inclusive citizen feedback loops, with the N-peace award, the Lab seeks to empower women with the tools to raise their voice on key issues faced within their community. By Ashmita Sharma. One of the many reasons for women being vulnerable to disasters, conflict, and violence is the lack of ability to make their voices heard. To support these women with a platform for creatively and sustainable skills, Lab provided fellowship opportunity for 10 women filmmakers, who are at the beginning of their career, to create 5 [...]

2020-01-29T00:00:00+00:0029th January 2020|

Integrity School Nepal 2019: beginning the journey

Accountability Lab Nepal recently launched its Integrity School for 2020, a year-long program that aims to build future leaders to be the building blocks of an accountability ecosystem in the country. Madhu Sudhan Ghimire, an Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, shares the surprises, learnings and discussions of  his first three days in the program in Kathmandu. My journey started when my friend tagged me on a Twitter post about applications for the Integrity School-2019. Then I checked the Accountability Lab website, found the approach to be interesting and quickly filled the google form attached. A series of phone calls and [...]

2019-11-25T00:00:00+00:0025th November 2019|

Accountability Lab announces top five officials as part of selecting integrity icon

KATHMANDU, Sept 15: The Accountability Lab’s Nepal chapter has selected five government offices as part of its annual reality show to select honest government offices. Under its sixth season of Integrity Icon Nepal 2019, formerly known as Integrity Idol, the lab has named five officials before opening voting to choose them. This year’s top five officials include Gyanendra Kumar Mishra at Ministry of Forest and Environment’s Project Facilitation Department; Ishwar Subedi, Food Investigation Officer at Department of Food, Technology and Quality Control’s; Kajiman Rai, Chief Administrative Officer of Chulachuli Rural Municipality, Illam; Prem Bahadur Darai, a teacher at Shree Bhanu [...]

2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:0015th September 2019|

When colleagues become family

I have come to the end of my 3-month internship with Accountability Lab Nepal and it has been an amazing experience to be part of the team. When I first arrived in Nepal, I had no understanding of the culture, customs, language or etiquette, which had created a sense of detachment. By John Le   This feeling soon dissipated as I started interning with Accountability Lab. I was amazed at how kind and welcoming the Nepal team was in only the first few weeks of being acquainted. I had notions of NGOs - especially ones focused on anti-corruption - having [...]

2019-05-24T00:00:00+00:0024th May 2019|
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