By Eresh Omar Jamal

Narayan Adhikari is Nepal country director and co-founder and Sanjeeta Pant is programmes and learning manager at Accountability Lab. In a conversation with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, they discuss the Accountability Lab’s Integrity Icon initiative, which recognises and awards public servants (across 15 countries), nominated by citizens and others for demonstrating exceptional integrity at work and their personal lives. It is an attempt to address the perception of widespread corruption among civil servants in these countries, and encourage greater integrity in the profession.

What motivated you to create Accountability Lab and the Integrity Icon initiative?

Narayan Adhikari (NA): When we started Accountability Lab, we wanted to do something positive, inspiring, innovative and creative, especially when we talk about working around promoting good governance. When I was working in various youth campaigns, we did a lot of anti-corruption events. But the results were not satisfactory, because if you keep pointing fingers at others, they will do the same. You are not creating an environment of trust, to co-create something that is more valuable to society. That is when we came up with the idea of Integrity Icon.

Integrity Icon aims to build an ecosystem of accountability and integrity in governance, through promoting individuals within the public service – identifying them, using their innovative ways, using the power of their personal honesty and integrity as a role model to inspire more public servants, citizens and the younger generation. Then we can really have a governance system that would work for the people – one that is inclusive, efficient, effective, and pro-citizen.

What positive results have you seen from the Integrity Icon initiative?

Sanjeeta Pant (SP): One positive result is how the icons themselves have been able to grow within their organisations or departments. When you talk about anti-corruption in governance, it is a pretty big issue. There are very interesting stories that have come out from all over the place, of how these icons have been promoted within their organisations because of this recognition, or given certain responsibilities that relate to the transparency and accountability of their organisations, because they are seen as “Integrity Icons.”

Article originally published in The Daily Star

Tirelo Makwela