Integrity Idol

Inspired by the ways in which popular media have proven effective in shaping public opinion on certain social ills, especially with young people, Integrity Idol began as the idea of honouring civil servants with the involvement of several people of all ages and levels of experience. The idea is that there are good, honest, accountable civil servants, but they are not widely known about or appreciated. Overcoming mistrust in government and building systems of justice and accountability requires changing popular mindsets by supporting individuals who demonstrate integrity. On this model, the process of change begins with the solution instead of the problem - that is, turning toward these changemakers taking positive action on the ground in order to build a movement in support of the rule of law.

Integrity Idol uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a strategy based on edutainment and community participation in effort to better educate, inform, and involve the public in a nationwide conversation about corruption. As part of the process, local teams of volunteers travel across their countries gathering nominations from citizens, hosting public forums and generating a national discourse on the need for public officials with integrity. The nominees are narrowed down to a final 5 in each country with the help of independent panels of experts. These finalists are then filmed at their workplace talking about the importance of integrity and how they strive for it. These episodes are shown on national television and played on the radio for a week, creating a national discussion offline and online. Citizens can vote for their favorites through SMS (text messaging) short-codes and through the Integrity Idol website. The winner in each country is crowned in a national ceremony in the capital. The prize is not monetary (as the idea is not to encourage financial incentives), but consists instead of public recognition.

To learn about the process in each country and/or to nominate a candidate, visit the Integrity Idol website. To cite one example of the way Integrity Idol worked in Nepal, in conjunction with a popular, youth-focused television network (Today's Youth Asia), Accountability Lab Nepal organised a nomination process for Nepali bureaucrats through a broad-based social media nomination campaign. Five bureaucrats were selected on this basis and their backgrounds checked through research, discussions, and validation of qualifications and actions. Each selected civil servant was then the subject of a short 30-minute documentary exploring their role, responsibilities, and their efforts to build the rule of law and integrity in Nepal. These documentaries were then shown for 5 consecutive weeks (with several repeats each week, and with radio versions of the audio files played on community radios around the country (with a reach of 14 million citizens - in conjunction with another Accountability Lab initiative, Radio Guru). All videos and audio files were posted on a dedicated website and on social media (Facebook and YouTube) for free access. Simultaneously, an SMS voting system was set up with short-codes in place corresponding to each candidate for the title of Integrity Idol. Throughout the campaign, viewers were encouraged to vote by text message and through social media (popular in Nepal) for their favorite civil servant, with votes tallied in a transparent manner in a central database. This first Integrity Idol collected over 300 nominations, and over 4 million people, or 10% of the population of Nepal, watched the show.

At the end of the 5-week campaign, in a televised ceremony, the Chief Civil Servant in the country presented the award to the winner, District Education Officer Gyan Mani Nepal, who had received the largest proportion of approximately 10,000 public votes. Reportedly, schools in Mr. Nepal's district and throughout the country (ranked 130th in the world for corruption) have been hobbled by very poor rates of teacher attendance. Many teachers have illegal side jobs in local politics or with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and partly in consequence of that, more than 67% of pupils in government schools nationwide fail the School Leaving Certificate after 10 grades of education. When he was appointed to the job in mid-2013, Mr. Nepal visited every school in the district and gave pupils his personal phone number, asking them to text him if their teachers failed to appear for work. He also created a daily log of teacher attendance that is maintained by pupils and submitted by them to him. The most recalcitrant teachers were fired, and some 200 more have been put on a warning since the pupil reports were started. As a result, Mr. Nepal raised the pass rate of school pupils in his district from 14% to more than 60% in a single year. Since his Integrity Idol win, Mr. Nepal has been consulted by the government for national strategies and has been invited to speak in front of the United States (US) Congress.

Democracy and Governance