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A large portion of anti-corruption work focuses on corruption as the problem and on wrong-doers as the perpetrators. Similarly, much social accountability literature is focused on accountability as “sanctions.” One challenge with this approach is that it doesn’t always  reflect what is going on in communities where citizens and providers work together to solve problems. Another challenge is that the focus on wrong-doing does not generate much hope that things are changing, or a sense that there is a different reality that we can all help to build. And in some circumstances, it can further reduce trust in government, which is part of the problem itself.

After working on these issues over time – and talking to young people in particular about their perceptions of accountability and anti-corruption – at Accountability Lab they realized that there is another, complementary approach. They call it “naming and faming” instead of “naming and shaming”. They look at integrity as the answer and the “do-gooders” as the role-models we can all emulate. By lifting them up, supporting coalitions among them and pushing for new, collective shifts towards positive solutions, we can show that change is possible. 

Meet four of Accountability Lab’s Integrity Icons from Nepal, Liberia and South Africa and hear how doing the right thing in emergency response – and being famed for it – is a powerful motivator for shifting behaviors and changing norms. We invite you to think with us why and how icons like them are an integral part of collaborative social accountability’s practice.

Read the following case studies from Integrity Icon South Africa:

• Nurse Elizabeth Mkhondo;
• Gugu Mlotshwa, a community health facilitator;
• Sakhile Nkosi, a young audiologist.