Fourteen year-old Subash Chaulagain from Shree Bal Byabasahi Secondary School in Kathmandu, Nepal was hesitant when ‘Civic Schools’, aSambhawana and Accountability Lab initiative, was introduced to his school. He expected it would be just another program with long lectures and…

By: Blair Glencorse. This post was originally published by the RSA.

The Big Idea: Nalibeli is an online platform created by Blair Glencorse FRSA and Surabhi Pudasaini that helps citizens in Nepal to navigate complicated public services,  and uses crowdsourcing to give people access to the information they need.  …

By: Blair Glencorse and Anne Sophie Lambert. This post was originally published by Local First.

For many Liberians living in the low-income, high-density neighborhoods of Monrovia, life is a daily struggle. Land disputes, drug problems, domestic abuse, and a lack of basic services, among other issues, are pervasive.

When citizens face legal challenges, the lack of…

Getting our hands dirty for accountability– building communities for change in Nepal.

By: Anne Sophie Lambert, Associate Director

At the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, World Vision International’s Local Advocacy Director, Jeff Hall, said that the focus of accountability is…

By: Blair Glencorse and Teemu Roponnen. This post has also been submitted for the OGP blog.

Liberia has made some impressive reforms to support open government since it signed the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2005. The government has put in place a host of bodies focused on transparency and accountability, including the Liberia Anti-Corruption…

By: Anne Sophie Lambert, Associate Director

Thomas Jefferson once said, “We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them.”

Last week, I attended the nation’s…

By: Yasmin Anis, Accountability Lab Summer Resident.

This summer, Accountability Lab Liberia helped organize and lead a series of training sessions to help Liberian youth better understand the concept of accountability and their related rights and…

By: Albert Otieno, iHub Research

iHub Research is the research arm of an innovative, open working space for the technology community in Nairobi, similar in many ways to the Lab’s home- the OpenGov Hub- in Washington DC. Since September 2011, iHub Research has been…

By Yasmin Anis, Accountability Lab Summer Resident. 

Every day as I ride along on my penh-penhs (motorbike taxis)- what I consider to be Liberia’s premier mode of transportation, I inevitably see one or two huge black SUVs with tinted windows pass by. I look over, trying to determine which VIP is inside. No doubt they are staring back at me with the…

“What does the kind of transparency that leads to accountability look like?” Last Thursday, the Lab participated in a constructive online discussion, facilitated by The Guardian’s Global Development Professionals Network, on how to build capacity for effective…

Last week at the OpenGovHub- the Accountability Lab’s home- we listened to two heavyweights in the fight against corruption: Frank Vogl, Co-founder of both Transparency International and The Partnership for Transparency Fund; and…