🌍 In this week's global roundup!

🇵🇰 Accountability Lab Pakistan organized a ...two-day conference with the Pakistan-U. S Alumni Network and the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan on Promoting Social Entrepreneurship in Pakistan. The conference gathered over 150 PUAN alumni and experts on social entrepreneurship from across the country to stimulate discussions, cultivate partnerships, and chart a course towards socio-economic stability in Pakistan.

🇳🇵 Accountability Lab Nepal and Youth Democracy Cohort have been connecting youth with local and provincial representation around the country. Young people have been sharing their concerns with local leadership, this time in Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City, Madhesh Province. Some key concerns are; the absence of a provincial youth policy, lack of representation for people with disabilities and the #LGBTIQ+ community in decision-making, political instability hindering policy development, and the need to harness the province’s tourism potential to engage youth.

🇳🇬 Accountability Lab Nigeria hosted a 3-day workshop for communities from petroleum-producing areas on how to advocate for benefits that they are owed. The Host Community Development Trust Fund is a mechanism to aid in the development of the economic and social infrastructure of communities in the petroleum-producing areas. The workshop shared a range of mechanisms including utilizing the Freedom of Information Act to enhance advocacy efforts.

🎶🎤 We're counting the days until Accountability Lab RDC and Accountability Lab ...Zimbabwe's Voice2Rep artists unleash their unbounded talent and incredible storytelling through song.

Over the years, young artists have dug into social justice topics close to their hearts and spotlighted mental health struggles, gender-based violence, drug abuse, corruption, and a range of other issues.

As we wait with anticipation for cohorts to launch their albums, enjoy the music of past Voice2Rep artists: AL DRC 2023: https://bit.ly/3yypzC4 and AL Zimbabwe: https://bit.ly/48I8X8y

🇱🇷 Accountability Lab Liberia & USAID's Social Accountability Training ⭐

... Accountability Lab Liberia, in collaboration with the USAID - US Agency for International Development, organized an Internal Monitoring & Social Accountability Training. The program aimed to equip participants from various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with the knowledge, skills, and tools to drive positive change within their communities. 🤝

The training involved participants from Education and Health Coalitions supported by the USAID/DAI Liberia Civil Society Activity (CSA) Project. Participants learned about internal monitoring and social accountability and got hands-on experience using tools like the Community Score Card, Complaint Forms, and Drug Stock-out Mapping. 🏢

📍Some of the great outcomes from the training include:

➡️ Practical application of the Community Scorecard and Complaint Forms, demonstrated through group work, presentations, and comprehensive reports.
➡️ Agreement among CSOs to use the Community Scorecard to assess and track free donated drugs to Health facilities, ensuring equal access to healthcare services.
➡️ Power mapping exercises enabling participants to identify key actors for engagement during scorecard assessments with community members and service providers, promoting collaboration and transparency.

#SocialAccountability #PositiveChange #AccountabilityLabLiberia #USAID
Integrity Icon Liberia

🇨🇩 Accountability Lab RDC's Civic Action Teams have been hard at work coordinating ...between Bukavu residents and community leaders. After surveying residents in three municipalities, participants hosted a data findings meeting where local leaders met to co-create solutions to major problems identified through the surveys.

Government leaders, chiefs, market representatives, and CSOs came up with the following solutions to challenges related to citizen participation in governance, participatory budget, and the work of newly elected municipal councilors:

1️⃣ Regular training for municipal councilors to strengthen their capacities in decision-making and public affairs management as well as their mission and role
2️⃣ Consider creating a one-stop shop for paying taxes.
3️⃣ Encouraging frameworks of exchange between authorities and residents such as popular expression forums, tax mornings, and neighborhood forums
4️⃣ Educate the population about citizenship and integrity.
5️⃣ Multiply capacity-building sessions for authorities and citizens on integrity, citizen responsibility, leadership, tax liability, citizen rights and duties, local governance, and participatory budget
6️⃣ Establish a mobilization and supervision cell, with a better knowledge of the contracts related to Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)

Keep an eye out for the team's progress as they close the loop between residents and their leadership!

There are many fundamental questions about #climate #finance. For instance, what investments ...constitute climate investments? How do we track financial flows and market activity while avoiding double counting investments? How do we ensure that investments in certain climate mitigation strategies are not harming the people living in areas that it is intended to help?

As part of our #HackCorruption project, which is supporting tech tools that help countries fight corruption, we're trying to answer some of these questions. Last month, the Lab co-hosted a roundtable with Development Gateway: An IREX Venture and the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network, in Bangkok, #Thailand. The goal was to discuss how to efficiently and effectively use money committed for activities to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Read this piece about the kind of multi-disciplinary approach that's necessary right now - https://developmentgateway.org/blog/letting-the-sunshine-in-building-inclusive-accountable-and-equitable-climate-finance-ecosystems/

#ClimateFinancing
#accountability

Letting the Sunshine in: Building Inclusive, Accountable, and Equitable Climate Finance Ecosystems – Development Gateway: An IREX Venture – Data and digital solutions for international development.

In April, DG, HackCorruption, and the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network hosted a roundtable in Bangkok to discuss climate financing. This blog...

developmentgateway.org

The Lab is joining the Pandemic Action Network and Sharing Strategies in calling urgently for the ...World Bank to include a civic engagement indicator in the bank's new Corporate Scorecard. As the bank evolves to implement its new mission and seeks a historic IDA21 Replenishment, our organizations are urging it to take bold, targeted, and meaningful steps now to translate this commitment into action.

Join us by signing on this letter to urge the World Bank to adopt operational indicators to publicly track and report progress on the quality of civic engagement -
https://forms.gle/WsJZexE5LvSdfPgN9

#MDBReform
#IDA21

Sign-on: Letter calling for the World Bank to include a civic engagement (CE) indicator in the bank's Corporate Scorecard

President Ajay Banga World Bank Group Dear President Banga, The World Bank Group (WBG) has committed to further strengthen WBG-civil society...

forms.gle

Wishing all the nurses out there a day filled with appreciation and recognition for everything you ...do.

#InternationalNursesDay

🌍 In this week's global roundup!

🇿🇦 Accountability Lab South Africa's ...What's on the Menu Mzansi team visited the eastern part of the country to hear what young people's expectations for government are around commitments to youth. They shared that there is a lack of service delivery in their communities and that local leaders can be unreasonable about youth freedom of expression and access to opportunities.

🇳🇬 Accountability Lab Nigeria stood in solidarity with journalist Daniel Ojukwu who was arrested and detained. The Lab urged Nigerian security agencies to uphold the pillars of democracy and press freedom by releasing Ojukwu. He was released today.

🇿🇼 Accountability Lab Zimbabwe hosted an internal knowledge management and organizational learning workshop to train their team in best practices for knowledge management and organizational learning. The team aimed to build a shared understanding and common ground to drive continued improvement and innovation.