In January 2025, Accountability Lab Zimbabwe, like numerous organisations worldwide, suspended its key initiative, the New Narratives for Accountability in Zimbabwe (NNAZ) project. This decision resulted from a global halt prompted by US President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order, which aimed to reassess and modify foreign aid from the United States. The suspension and eventual termination of the NNAZ project were part of around seven other projects by Accountability Lab that experienced similar outcomes in its translocal network across Mali, Nepal, the DRC, and Washington, DC. 

Since then, Accountability Lab, along with partners such as Development Gateway, Digital Public, and Humentum, has been diligently working to support the governance and accountability ecosystem. They provide tools to evaluate the impact of terminations, mergers, and strategic partnerships while striving to fulfil their primary role of making governance effective for the people through active citizenship, responsive leadership, and accountable institutions. 

Part of this critical ecosystem support work begins with acknowledging the challenges and attempting to create neat exits from communities, despite the difficulties. In fact, Accountability Lab’s non-extractive approach demands it.

Today, May 14, 2025, Accountability Lab Zimbabwe began the important work of expressing gratitude and bidding farewell to the communities, constituencies, and fellows involved in the NNAZ project. 

The process, which will bring together the lab for learning and celebration with the project’s alumni, aims to conclude the project responsibly. The Accountability Lab is carrying out this process despite the aid cuts, demonstrating that this is not a pro forma process but rather part of AL’s deep commitment to fostering lasting relationships in a transparent and dialogical manner with its partners. 

It is also part of the Lab’s accountability to those it collaborates with and a demonstration that accountability remains a pathway to building people-centered governance in Zimbabwe. This is particularly evident in its Civic Action teams initiative, which sought to restore the social contract between citizens and duty bearers at the local level by providing communities with tools to help duty bearers fulfil their rights and responsibilities communities. 

Starting with the first of five community exit meetings in Entumbane, Bulawayo, where the Lab was implementing its Civic Action Teams (CivActs), it was clear that, although the dramatic end was regrettable, the NNAZ project had left a lasting impact. 

The exit meeting brought together a vibrant cross-section of the local leadership and community voices, including Entumbane Ward 10 Councillor Khalazani Ndlovu, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association, the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET), and other civil society organisations (CSOS) from its NNAZ implementation family and accountability ecosystem.

      Residents from Entumbane and Pumula reflected on the CivActs journey, celebrating achievements in local accountability and co-creating solutions to the Drug and Substance Abuse challenges in Entumbane and Quarry Mining in Pumula. Over the four years of implementation, the CivActs initiative engaged over 733,803 citizens, both online and offline. In Bulawayo, CivActs facilitated listening meetings, feedback sessions, and surveys, which led to a program addressing several local governance issues. These included advocacy for use of ward based retentions for the informal economy, stricter regulation of urban mining  the co-creation of solution to the drug abuse scourge.

Accountability Lab is grateful for the support from the American people and the @us Embassy in Harare, which facilitated this work and provided general support for other NNAZ elements, including the Accountability Incubator, the Accountability Film Fellowship, the Integrity Icon, and the Voice2Rep Competition.

 It also thanks its CivActs partners, such as the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation, which led the Bulawayo work, the National Association of Youth Organisations, the Amandla network, and ZT. The Accountability Lab’s respectful and well-organised departure from the NNAZ project’s implementation areas and communities was made possible thanks to the support of the Embassy of Switzerland. They shared the Lab’s conviction that true developmental progress starts with responsible exits. 

The Lab will hold follow-up meetings in Harare, Goromonzi, and Chitungwiza after the Exit meeting in Bulawayo, along with engagements with former fellows from the Accountability Incubator, Accountability Film Fellowship, Integrity Icon Campaign, and Voice2Rep Competition.

– by Dr. McDonald Lewanika and Beloved Chiweshe