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Ram Bahadur’s Remarkable Journey: From Aspiring to Inspiring

By Dridhata Silwal  Ram Bahadur Kurumbang’s journey began during his school days when he absorbed the invaluable lessons of moral education taught by his dedicated school teachers. These teachings stayed with him for a lifetime, ultimately shaping his core principles and placing integrity at the center of everything he does.  This strong foundation later propelled him to take a stand against corruption and work tirelessly towards building a stronger, more transparent system. His remarkable transformation from a schoolboy learning about moral values to becoming an Integrity Icon award winner is a truly inspiring story. It highlights the importance of having [...]

2023-09-26T13:37:14+00:0026th September 2023|

Raising Voices, Exposing Lies: Investigative Journalism’s Role in Anti-Corruption

By Leah Persons For years, Nepal has grappled with the dire issue of human trafficking, particularly affecting women and girls as young as twelve. A significant incident in 2018 involved a Nepali politician who orchestrated the trafficking of over 200 women; this individual was apprehended and convicted. However, the corrupt Supreme Court of Nepal controversially released the politician, citing mistaken identity by the accusers. The continued prevalence of human trafficking in Nepal is attributed to the deeply rooted corruption within the country. This underscores the urgent need to escalate anti-corruption initiatives to effectively address these grave concerns. A crucial advocate [...]

2023-08-31T12:53:33+00:0028th August 2023|

Five ways to make regional collaborations meaningful

Accountability Lab Nepal (ALN) and Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) are collaborating to promote youth engagement in democracy in Nepal and Bangladesh, respectively. The goal is to build and strengthen diverse and pluralistic networks of youth leaders through targeted support, collective learning and shared best practices to strengthen democracy.  This blog is based on a joint reflection between the program implementation teams during a learning exchange visit from Nepal to Bangladesh and summarizes the value of meaningful collaborations.This blog also highlights how young people from Nepal and Bangladesh uniquely catalyze their role to strengthen democracies, advance social changes and support innovation.  [...]

2023-08-14T12:08:06+00:0018th July 2023|

Gov-HER-Nance: A Feminist Approach to Governance, Accountability, and Climate Justice

Somaya Jalari is a 70-year-old fisherwoman who, like many generations before her, has been fishing and boating on the Phewa Lake all her life. She has seen various changes taking place in Phewa Lake in her lifetime. For instance, the local and indigenous fish species are no longer available in the lake. Consequently, women and men like her who depend on the Lake have to buy new species of hatchlings from their savings and leave them in the water. Furthermore, the water has been heavily polluted by floods, weeds, and plastics which has negatively affected biotic life.  Somaya says, “I [...]

2023-08-14T12:33:13+00:004th July 2023|

‘When people with integrity begin to rise, corruption fails’

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 [...]

2023-01-18T13:17:30+00:0022nd December 2022|

Ways to commit to democracy in Nepal

Nepal needs an essential internal effort to drive reforms that are well overdue. Narayan Adhikari and Blair Glencorse take a closer look Last month, the Nepal government released its written commitments as part of the United States government-led Summit for Democracy—an effort to bolster and renew democratic action globally during a period of significant challenges for democracies around the world. While American influence in Nepal is certainly not uncontroversial—as we have seen with the renewed protests related to the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement recently—in a broader sense the S4D, as it is known, and the “Year of Action” it has now precipitated are an extraordinary opportunity [...]

2022-08-26T12:11:13+00:0026th August 2022|

The value of iteration and innovation

Written by Sanjeeta Pant   This is the second in a series of reflective blogs that will look at how the dynamic nature of Accountability Lab’s Civic Action Teams campaign has facilitated a network of local stakeholders to respond to diverse community needs. Read the first blog here.   “The Civic Action Teams model is a result of incorporating different learnings over a number of years. We did not start out with the intention of solving big problems. We did not even make any promises. We simply wanted to listen to what people had to say and to connect them [...]

2022-08-05T08:26:06+00:0029th July 2022|

Using citizen feedback to solve local challenges

Written by Sanjeeta Pant   Maya Lama, a woman from Mangaltar village in Nepal, was one of the survivors of the 2015 earthquake which completely destroyed her house. The government- with donor support- set up a process for citizens to receive funds for reconstruction, but Maya was unable to receive these funds as she was not registered on the list of earthquake victims. Her husband was working abroad, and the property she lost was not in her name. But, thanks to the power of local advocacy and democracy, she joined a town hall meeting at which she spoke directly to [...]

2022-08-05T08:25:23+00:0028th July 2022|

10 Key Learnings from A Decade of Building Accountability in Nepal

Our team at Accountability Lab Nepal are celebrating the organization’s 10th anniversary by reflecting on some of our key learnings. We feel that our greatest impact is in how much we learn and how much our learning culture has helped us to catalyze changes in Nepal by influencing decisions, shaping opinions and role modeling behaviors. We’ve tested creative ideas as we have mobilized around accountability issues through campaigns; equipped reformers within and outside government with skills, knowledge and tools to push for better governance; and influenced policies, process and practices by building ecosystems in communities. Despite challenges in the past [...]

2022-04-29T10:58:33+00:0029th April 2022|

Ways to commit to democracy

By Blair Glencorse & Narayan Adhikari  Last month, the Nepal government released its written commitments as part of the United States government-led Summit for Democracy—an effort to bolster and renew democratic action globally during a period of significant challenges for democracies around the world. While American influence in Nepal is certainly not uncontroversial—as we have seen with the renewed protests related to the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement recently—in a broader sense the S4D, as it is known, and the “Year of Action” it has now precipitated are an extraordinary opportunity to galvanise attention and mobilise international action to support democratic norms. Sadly, the Nepal government [...]

2022-04-03T13:41:45+00:0017th March 2022|
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