Emmanuel Chitsika
Young people and civic organisations with interests in ensuring accountability prevails in their communities will soon receive a major boost as Accountability Lab Zimbabwe has opened a call for proposals towards such initiative.
In a press release dated October 11, 2021, the organisation opened applications to aspiring trainees mainly targeting young people and social entrepreneurs.
“The accountability incubator has opened applications for its second cohort, to commence in January 2022. The incubator is an initiative of the Accountability lab that nurtures young civic leaders and social entrepreneurs working to address accountability challenges in their communities.
“Accountability Lab makes governance work for the people by supporting active citizens, responsible leaders and accountable institutions,” read the statement.
The main thrust of the nurturing will be the grooming of emerging civic leaders who would ensure that sanity and accountability prevails in corporate governance practices.
“The training will support innovative applications that promote integrity and ethical behavior within public institutions and new innovative ideas that foster accountability, open government and participation in communities.
“Accountability Lab will look for applications that creatively address citizen participation in governance, promote accountability in public resource management, including but not limited to land governance, local governance and environmental management, promote access to information on governance issues, and enhance service delivery and human rights especially for women, the disabled as well as marginalized communities,” the report read.
The accountability programme’s first batch enrolled in January 2021 and some of the inaugural ‘Accountapreneurs’ is Courteney Mukoyi well known for developing Astrea Justice, a mobile app with user information about the constitution as well as court and police contacts in all provinces.
Two other graduates are Mtokozisi Ndebele, founder of Gender Accountability for Peace and Security (GAPS) and Nkosikhona Dibiti founder of Community Podium.
The 2022 programme will cater for 10 accountapreneurs who will benefit from a hybrid approach to the Incubator due to Civid-19 restrictive situation though the organisation will adhere to strict rules and regulations of the pandemic.
