Dorjee Khando
Accountability Lab, a non-profit organization, has been building a new generation of active citizens and responsible leaders in Nepal and around the world for more than five years now. The lab is basically a platform for the people who want to make a change, develop and implement positive ideas for the betterment of their communities.
Every year, the lab organizes a program called “The Accountability Incubator” for the young leaders of the society to build a sustainable one. In this program, they collect ideas that are presented to them from all over Nepal and choose the top 8 to whom they help initiate their ideas.
The lab achieves their goal through three mutually-reinforcing objectives:
- To support a positive movement to build accountability
- provide substantiative, flexibility and long-term support for those leaders who can collectively lead this movement within specific contexts
- Support collaboration around accountability and open governance.
Like every year, this year eight of the participants have been chosen from the program. In it, they will be approaching on for their ideas to build a society in context to the problem they see. Here we have the agendas, projects and their vision.
Surendra Koirala, 24
(Chairman of Chetana Forum)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Agenda: Reducing corruption and poor governance at the local level via improved communication between leaders and citizens.
Project: Institute for Educational Technology
Currently, he is developing a cloud-based mobile application that will empower citizens in allowing direct communication with their elected representatives. Surendra seeks to reduce corruption and promote good governance by building the communication gap between government leaders and citizens, allowing the public to question and share their opinions directly to their officials. In addition, it will allow both leaders and public to track their activities.
Samrat Thapa, 20
(Chief editor of Sabdashakti)
Itahari, Nepal
Agenda: Local representatives’ accountability and youth engagement
Project: Shabdashakti
He seeks to create a platform for dialogue between the local leaders and the citizens, conduct small-scale research on these topics, write articles/blogs and engage youth and marginalized groups to promote accountability in his local community in Itahari, eastern Nepal.
Prakriti Upreti, 27
(Member of Pashupati Vision Pvt. Ltd. management team)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Agenda: Highly inefficient and corrupt public transport system of Nepal.
Project: Smart Transport
She plans to introduce an online portal in Kathmandu Valley to make the public transport system more efficient, reliable, and safe. By reducing problems faced by commuters, she hopes to further economic growth.
Prabhat Chettri, 23
(Program Director at Nepal Chetana Kendra)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Agenda: Accountability and anti-corruption in communities.
Project: Youth Accountability Academy
He plans to engage students — particularly law students — in an effort to promote transparency and accountability in their communities. Various seminars will be conducted and a group named, ‘Accountability Volunteers’ comprised of law students. The group will conduct rallies, publish a student-run journal, and organize participatory programs such as essay writing competition on accountability.
Nabin Bhatt, 24
(An independent filmmaker)
Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur, Nepal
Agenda: Accountability and anti-corruption in the communities
Project: Cinema for change
Nabin wants to create social awareness through a visual medium. He will create short films and conduct theatre dramas about various social problems in Nepal such as marital rape, transgender issues, and prostitution. The films will be screened in different public places, schools, and districts of Nepal.
Apurba KC, 25
(Leadership Research Officer at Nepal Leadership Academy)
Kathmandu, Nepal
Agenda: Public’s knowledge on elections and constitutions of Nepal government accountability.
Project: Civic Talks and Tutorials
Apurba wants to host a series of podcast and video essays (hosted on YouTube) and design and conduct model elections in schools and colleges. Through this initiative, she intends to inform young Nepalese about the opportunities and challenges of civil service and civic responsibility through conversations with honest civil servants.
Dinesh Gautam, 21
(Social activist)
Surkhet, Nepal
Agenda: Local Representatives’ Accountability and Right to Information [RTI] issues.
Project: Jantasanga Pratinidhi
He wants to make recently elected local representatives accountable through dialogue forums, follow-ups, and documentation. Thus helping the public to track whether the pre-election promises of the local representatives have been met or not.
Hira Bijuli Nepali, 29
(A theater artist and social activist)
Mugu, Nepal
Agenda: Fading local cultures, languages and heritages of Karnali region.
Project: Bharta (A traditional storytelling method)
Bharta aims to raise awareness on social issues and preserve the fading local cultures, tangible and intangible heritages in Karnali, one of the most remote regions of Nepal, through the use of radio and at the same time promote accountability among local representatives through performance arts.
