Who will be South Africa’s First Integrity Idol?
Corruption Watch is one of the organisations supporting the Integrity Idol South Africa initiative, which has arrived in our country and will launch on 16 January in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. […]
Opening governance with a new generation in Liberia
By: Blair Glencorse and Heather Gilberds. This blog post was originally published by Making All Voices Count. This week, as the Open Government Partnership holds its 2016 summit in Paris, there will be many reflections on how to improve the ways that governments interact with citizens, and how to ensure that citizen voices and priorities are incorporated in policy-making. Under President Sirleaf, the Government of Liberia has worked to open up government and put in place organisations and mechanisms to support accountability. As part of the work funded by our Making All Voices Count research and learning grant, the Accountability [...]
The OGP Process in Nepal – On The Path of Our Own Choosing
By: Narayan Adhikari and Pranav Boudhathoki. This blog post was originally published on the Open Government Partnership blog. Politics has often been the obstacle to greater transparency in Nepal. But the country’s open government movement took an important step forward last month, when twelve leading accountability and transparency groups gathered in the new OpenGov Hub Kathmandu - a resource center on openness and transparency – to critically examine progress on this agenda to date. The idea was to push build consensus around the idea of open government and the Open Government Partnership, generate local ownership of the process and develop preliminary ideas on [...]
Taking Open Governance from Cape Town to Monrovia
By: Francis Lansana, Accountability Lab Liberia Resident. This blog post was originally published by the Open Government Partnership. "Open Government for Sustainable Development in Africa” was the theme for this year’s Open Government Partnership Regional Conference for Africa held in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference brought together over 900 participants from all corners of the world, including a small delegation from Liberia. For us, it was a well-timed moment to reflect on our progress over the past year of implementation of our National Action Plan; share lessons with other reformers in the region and beyond; and begin to think [...]
Walking the Talk- The Open Government Partnership Steering Committee
By: Blair Glencorse, Executive Director of the Accountability Lab Last month, I was privileged to be considered as a candidate for the Civil Society Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP)- the international governance body for the initiative. Civil society members on the Steering Committee play a number of roles- chiefly setting the direction of the OGP, representing broader civil society within the Steering Committee itself and facilitating and articulating the work of the OGP globally. The field of candidates was impressive and deep- and while I was not selected (congratulations to the new members!), the process as a [...]
Learning to Transform Governance in the Philippines
Learning to Transform Governance in the Philippines By: Blair Glencorse, Accountability Lab Executive Director. Last week I was part of the latest Making All Voices Count (MAVC) learning event in Manila—which brought together about 60 of the initiative’s grantees, researchers, technologists and other stakeholders to reflect on the theme of “transformative governance”. The first point to make is that as a learning event—with a real emphasis on reflecting, sharing and improving what we do, it was the best workshop I’ve been to in a long time. The content, team and process kept me fully engaged from start to finish and I [...]
What does Open Government have to do with the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
The world’s business VIPs are meeting in Davos this week for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), where the theme is the fourth industrial revolution machines.
SMART Liberians Seek a More Open University of Liberia
By: Brooks Marmon, Accountability Architect. Accountability Lab supported SMART Liberia’s Update 8 campaign through the Accountability Incubator. On December 4, several hundred students of the University of Liberia gathered at the institution’s Fendell Campus for a convocation hosted by the student advocacy and training group, SMART Liberia. The assembly sought to sensitize students on Liberia’s Open Government Partnership commitments, of which one component commits the government, with support of civil society, to regularly update and standardize government websites. SMART Liberia has launched a campaign, Update 8, supported by OSIWA and the Accountability Lab to help advance this goal. To this end it [...]
Opening Government through Business in Pakistan
By: Blair Glencorse, Hammad Siddiqui and Fayyaz Yaseen. This blog post was originally published by the Open Government Partnership. “We support open government not just because it is good for business but because is central to human rights and dignity” concluded a leading member of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry at the recent Open Government Partnership (OGP) meeting in Pakistan. With an attitude like this, it is easy to see why the movement for transparency and accountability is gathering pace across the country; and with Pakistan now eligible, there is a real push to join the OGP. The meeting- [...]
Validating Liberia’s Open Government Partnership National Action Plan
By: Meghan Schneider, Accountability Lab Liberia Summer Design Resident. This blog post was originally published by Open Government Partnership. On June 12, 2015 the Republic of Liberia convened a Stakeholders’ Interactive Forum to Validate the Open Government Partnership Action Plan at the Ministry of Information (MICAT). Participants included members of the OGP Steering Committee who came from various counties, as well as representatives from various civil society organizations and government ministries. The Honorable Andrew G. Temeh, Deputy Minister of Administration at MICAT and the OGP Focal Person, gave an overview of the OGP’s 2015-2016 Action Plan. After the overview, participants were [...]