I originally wrote this in Dutch on the occasion of the retirement of Peter Knip - Director of VNG international who dedicated his life to democracy and peace.

We had found a great way to encourage people in Ethiopia to become active citizens at the helm of democracy. The 'theatre for social accountability' struck a cord with people,…

Imagine. You are walking to the shop in your village and the local community organizer approaches you. Would you like to participate in a climate assembly with 100 people from around the world for several weeks? This happened in October 2021.

The Global Assembly is not a one-off input for the COP26, but aims to give citizens from around the world a permanent seat at the table of international decision making.…

Today is the first time that I am in a situation where I can give the 3-finger salute that has become familiar in the pictures coming from Myanmar. Although it is online it feels like we are connected in solidarity with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).

Two days after this online meeting, some words still keep ringing in my…

This blogpost is the second inspired by John Gaventa’s 8 messages from: Rethinking Empowerment and Accountability in ‘Difficult Settings’ If you missed the first, you can find it…

This blogpost is inspired by John Gaventa  | EADI/ISS Blog Series

Over the last three decades, I have designed and implemented interventions focusing on ‘empowerment and accountability’, that aimed to contribute to a range of outcomes like good governance, equality…

This academic paper which I wrote together with Ellen Pieterse PhD and Tadelech Debele, provides a unique insight into how we developed gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) as a Social Accountability (SA) tool for citizens at the at the lowest tier of government in…

What is inspiring or unique about the place?

It all started over 50 years ago with a teacher who volunteered his services to the community for 25 years. He is over 90 years old now. His son, who they lovingly refer to as "Guru" (right in the picture), has followed in his footsteps, gradually building a team of likeminded people in the community. They run an amazing nursery, school and college, and many lifelong learning programs - for instance, when we…

This text was developed as "project" example for the "transforming capitalism lab" of the Presencing Institute at MIT.

What is the main vision behind your work?

My work is "capacity development" of…

Based on an interview with a local governance advisor in Kathmandu, Nepal



What was most interesting about what I heard in this interview?

We have peace in nepal now, and a new constitution that has the most far reaching form of local autonomy and respect for diversity in Asia. Now how do we redefine 'peace'? He always gets bogged down into these kind of discussions. Wants to come together with other professonals to volontarily contribute experience…

While many CSO in Myanmar are facing Nay Pyi Taw, we have our feet in a muddy drain and waste dump of two towns in Tanintharyi Region. We, that is VNG and Loka Ahlin in cooperation with the regional government and with support from the…

So if shouting doesn’t work, what will? On the 22nd of June 2017, CPAN, in partnership with Mzumbe University, INTRAC and the Foundation for Civil Society, brought together researchers, policy-makers and practitioners at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London. The event, Improving local governance and service delivery…

Whenever I meet social accountability practitioners abroad, they wonder: Social Accountability in Ethiopia, with civil society involvement, really? We all have these boxes in our head – Ethiopia, restrictive NGO environment, one party system, top-down political economy, etc… So many “challenges” can be named, and yet, we are running the single largest social accountability…

Government policies and basic services have the potential to create opportunities for large numbers of people to work themselves out of poverty. Local governments and frontline service providers are ideally placed to enable the inclusion, so that policies and services reach their potential. Here are some of the insight we gained and lessons we learned from interlocutor work…

We took a bit of a risk at the National Conference Ethiopia Social Accountability Program phase 2 (ESAP2) by starting with the Theatre for Social Accountability. Yet as soon as the coughing began that brings the audience into the imaginary health centre I knew the theatre would work well to introduce the audience to ESAP2’s approach and results. Within an hour, the audience…

The ESAP2 Management Agency and the CSOs have “worked with the system”, so that Social Accountability would trigger interest and action among various stakeholders. As a Social Accountability Expert with the ESAP2 MA, I highlighted the key interventions that have developed capacity and generated systems action at the ESAP2 National Conference in Addis Ababa on April…

It was with great pleasure that I accepted the request of the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) knowledge platform to co-facilitate an e-forum in preparation for the World Development Report 2017 on Governance and Law, lead by Steve Cummins.…

I have signed up for U.lab - a free online course or MOOC facilitated by Otto Scharmer from Theory U and more recently Leading from the merging future. 

In the…

It's no news: I am a fan of knowledge platforms and online information brokers (see this post for instance). It was therefore rewarding to see that the GPSA knowledge platform noticed me and asked for an interview. Thanks ladies! …

After the round table about Ombudsman Institutions and their relationship to social accountability at the World Bank, I approached Mr. Danang Girindrawardana, Ombudsman Indonesia to learn more about his relationship with the government. The focus of the round-table questions had rightfully been about reaching out to the most vulnerable in society. Yet it is clear that in some…

When we were talking about facilitating the last learning event in the Ethiopia Social Accountability Program phase 2 (ESAP2), we noticed that more and more stakeholders are gradually taking an interest because the program is producing real service improvement results. How to bring relatively new stakeholders on board with those who have already been involved with Social Accountability for two years or more? This workshop needed to help old…