Accountability Lab
Accountability Lab is a global translocal network that makes governance work for people.
🎙️ Our new AccountabiliTea podcast episode is out, and it's asking a pertinent question about grantmaking: “Do you want to make a grant, or do you want to solve a problem?”
Accountability Lab Co-CEO Cheri-Leigh Erasmus is joined by Carolyn Dallmann, Senior Manager for Peacebuilding & Partnerships at Humanity United, and Lior Ipp, CEO of Proximate Futures Fund, for a timely conversation about shifting power through innovative approaches to grantmaking.
Together, they explore:
· Participatory grantmaking and proximate leadership
· The value of lived experience as expertise
· Rethinking trust, accountability, and perceived risk
· The role of funders as allies and strategic partners
· Moving beyond making grants towards solving problems
Watch or listen now – or read the full transcript! 🔗 https://bit.ly/4d5BYyU
Join us in welcoming Masha Lisitsyna, our Senior Non-Resident Fellow!
With over 25 years of experience in human rights, accountability and democracy, she has worked to protect human rights defenders and marginalized communities, advance accountability for serious violations and strengthen collaboration across regions.
Masha spent 15 years with the Open Society Foundations, supporting human rights defenders, freedom of assembly, criminal justice reform and accountability. She holds advisory roles supporting public-interest law and women human rights defenders.
Earlier, she worked as a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-founded and led the Youth Human Rights Group in Kyrgyzstan.
Her current research explores how civil society actors in Eurasia and Eastern Europe can build deeper relationships with counterparts in the Global South, creating space for mutual learning.
We are excited to have her expertise and energy shaping our work!
09/03/2026
🪧 GenZ protests around the world have called for good, accountable governance in powerful ways, and achieved a range of political change. Leaders toppled in Nepal and Bangladesh, a finance bill withdrawn in Kenya, and constitutional debates sparked from Sri Lanka to Morocco.
Movement participants we’ve spoken to so far have shared concerns about tokenistic inclusion, co-option by the systems they set out to change, and the heavy impacts of pushing for that change without appropriate infrastructure.
As we navigate this work with others, we are finding that the hardest part of the process is not mobilization, but what comes after.
Here’s what we’re learning, so far:
🔲 Trust seems to work as infrastructure
🔲 The movement does not end when the news cycle does
🔲 Participation is uneven, and proximity to main urban areas distorts it
🔲 Listen first, then support what is asked for
🔲 Neutral convening has limits, and we should say so
🔗 For more, please visit: https://bit.ly/4654fBT
09/02/2026
📣 The Central America Donors Forum (CADF) 2026 agenda is now live!
We’re delighted that Florencia Guerzovich, Civic Strength Partners Learning Consultant , will join a panel exploring critical questions facing civil society and philanthropy across the region.
Alongside the panel, Flor and Accountability Lab Co-CEO Jean Scrimgeour, through Civic Strength Partners, will offer a closed workshop and advisory sessions for participating organizations navigating organizational transitions.
🔗 Explore the CADF 2026 agenda: https://bit.ly/4i4n6El
💡 Organizations interested in guidance on organizational transitions can register their interest here: https://bit.ly/4gIuF1l
We’re looking forward to the conversations and shared learning ahead! 🌎
09/01/2026
🌍 Who truly holds the reins in “country-led” development?
In a new piece for InDepthNews, Soheila Comninos – a global development and philanthropy leader and Accountability Lab Senior Non-Resident Fellow – examines how extractive economic systems and elite collusion can undermine genuine country ownership.
She argues that country-led development cannot simply mean government-led development. Civil society and local communities must have an equal voice in determining how resources are used, how decisions are made, and whose interests development ultimately serves.
The piece calls on funders and practitioners to break down the silos between development and democracy, strengthen civic oversight, and invest in locally rooted approaches that expand people’s agency.
🔗 Read the full article: https://bit.ly/3UvZPS0
09/01/2026
We're excited to release AL's New Strategic Directions paper which sets out where we believe the accountability field needs to go and the role we can play within it.
We're finding that civic and political engagement is happening in new ways, cross-border solidarity is easier, and governance quality is now tied directly to things like climate finance and private investment, which opens new doors for accountability work that didn’t exist a few years ago. AI is part of that same story: it’s creating new tools and new risks, and organizations that move early will help define how AI shapes our world.
Read all about it in this overview from our Co-CEO Blair Glencorse:
Accountability Lab’s New Strategic Directions - Accountability Lab Here at the Lab we just wrapped a year-long process of reimagining what the network does next, and the result is our Strategic Directions for 2026 to 2028 paper. It’s less of a five-year plan (after all, these days it is hard to plan 5 weeks in advance, let alone half a decade!); and more…
08/31/2026
The incredible solidarity in Nepal in the wake of the recent flooding disaster is to be commended. However, the downstream destruction was not simply an unavoidable tragedy. Much of it reflects choices already built into the country’s political economy.
In this piece for the South China Morning Post, AL's Narayan Adhikari provides five ways Nepal could move from emergency solidarity to systemic institutional accountability.
Accountability Lab Nepal
Opinion | Why Nepal-China floods are more than a natural disaster While the solidarity on display in the wake of the disaster is commendable, the tragedy must not be viewed as an unpredictable, unpreventable act of nature.
08/28/2026
When the mission demands a bolder path, how can organizations protect what matters most while embracing change?
In a new piece for Civic Strength Partners, Accountability Lab’s Global Communications Director, Sheena Adams, shares insights from Cadasta Foundation’s strategic alliance with Corus International.
Drawing on the experience of Cadasta President and CEO Amy Coughenour Betancourt, the piece explores how organizations can define their non-negotiables, negotiate from a position of value, preserve their identity, and drive the process – even from the smaller chair.
Civic Strength Partners is a collaboration between Accountability Lab, Development Gateway, and Digital Public. It supports social change organizations navigating strategic partnerships, mergers, succession, and legacy planning while preserving the mission, knowledge, and relationships that matter.
🔎 Read the article: https://bit.ly/44pMtZp
🌐 Learn more about Civic Strength Partners: https://bit.ly/4cK3y4x
When the Mission Demands a Bolder Path | Civic Strength Partners Amy Coughenour Betancourt has been a social sector leader for 30 years, leading domestic and international development work, and for the past 8 years has served as President and CEO of the Cadasta Foundation. She leads its work to advance global land tenure and access to its resources with a deep co...
📱🇳🇵For Gen Z, the digital space is where organizing happens. It’s where they form and share opinions, show up for each other, and connect to the wider world.
So, when young people in Nepal experienced the platform ban during protests last year, it was as a clampdown on the infrastructure for civic life.
Not only did long-running governance issues exist, the ability to air their grievances about them was being muffled. The shutdown was the moment long-running corruption, public service failure, and economic insecurity found their trigger.
“Freedom of opinion and expression is our fundamental right guaranteed by our Constitution. When people felt that the government was trying to restrict that right and silent their voice, it became the breaking point.”
08/25/2026
Pakistan’s digital transformation is moving quickly – but what does it mean for the people navigating it every day?
By March 2026, broadband subscriptions had reached 161 million. Yet only 45.6% of the population was using the internet at the end of 2025, while adult literacy stood at 58.9%. These figures point to deeper questions about who can access digital spaces, who feels safe participating in them, and whose voices risk being left behind.
In his latest blog, Muhammad Abubakar, Program and Communications Manager at Accountability Lab Pakistan, looks beyond the connectivity numbers to explore what an inclusive digital future should involve.
From digital trust and information integrity to online rights and the growing influence of AI, the blog examines what these shifts mean for citizens—and for the future of Pakistan’s digital democracy.
Read the full blog:
From Digital Ambition to Democratic Trust: Charting Pakistan's Path Toward Inclusive Digital Governance - Accountability Lab Pakistan Pakistan has reached a genuine turning point in its digital journey. What follows will not be measured by how many additional citizens come online. It will be measured by whether those citizens believe the digital state being built around them has earned their confidence. That, more than any measure...
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