October 2005, AccountAbility
A21 reflects the intent, spirit and breadth of ideas and practice being debated through an on-going AccountAbility initiative. It draws particularly on an event hosted by AccountAbility in London in October 2005, which brought together hundreds of business leaders, civil activists and public servants with an extraordinary breadth of perspectives, exemplified by keynote presenters such Anwar Ibrahim, Mary Robinson, Olaru Otunnu, Bob Monks, Will Hutton, Martin Wolf, Achim Steiner, Kumi Naidoo, and Jane Nelson, to debate the challenges, experiences and opportunities for innovating the practice of accountability. A21 highlights the need for seismic transformations in how people and institutions are effectively held to account. It argues that accountability innovations are unlikely to come from those institutions that moulded and steward today’s approaches to accountability, whether in and for government, business or individual citizens. It convincingly demonstrates that many of tomorrow's most significant forms of accountability will be rooted in today's experimentation in collaborative governance, peer-2-peer networks and civil regulation, crossing sovereign, cultural and sectoral boundaries.
