Integrity Systems
In most emerging economies, corruption is an endemic and recurring problem that all entrepreneurs have to deal with – a malaise that increases transaction costs, reduces the necessary speed and transparency of development, and hinders development. "Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it," says Ashoka Global Academy Member, and Transparency International founder, Peter Eigen. "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery. Corruption must be vigorously addressed if aid is to make a real difference in freeing people from poverty."

LFAI’s approach to flipping systems combines three components, all tested and vital for the acceleration and dissemination of social change: the individual work of leading social entrepreneurs – in India and around the world – on issues such as transparency, accountability and good governance; collaborations between such entrepreneurs to develop, systematize and replicate successful solutions; and an open global competition to find, refine and implement relevant new ideas. Based on this approach, the work on effective integrity systems will fulfill LFAI’s pivotal role: first, to handpick the best people, ideas, and seeds of change; and second, to make sure that local and global leaders work as a mutually enabling, encouraging, and inspiring community – i.e., that they work simultaneously, harmoniously, and, most importantly, in a way that amplifies their positive effect and helps to eradicate corruption.

Mental Health
Persons with mental illness form one of the most marginalized and vulnerable population segments in India. Yet civil society has little understanding of mental illness which then allows the State to remain callous and non-committed toward the fate of those suffering from mental illnesses and their families. It is this scenario that makes it crucial to launch a strong advocacy initiative towards protecting the rights of persons with mental illness.

The Access to Justice workshop held in Kolkata (August 2005) and organized by Ashoka's Law For All Initiative, provided a forum to create a proposed Charter of Rights for persons with mental illnesses. This Charter of Rights has been drafted as the first steps towards a consolidated advocacy and campaign initiative throughout the country for ensuring the rights of persons with mental illness. The goal is to create a National Alliance of multidisciplinary stakeholders to pro-actively implement nationwide advocacy and campaign programs for the mentally ill.

Governance
LFAI is also taking forward work relating to good governance and ensuring accountability amongst government systems and functioning. We are implementing this by first identifying and selecting social entrepreneurs who are attacking corruption at different levels of governance by putting citizens in charge (by forming vigilant citizen groups) and thus fostering transparency and accountability. Secondly, LFAI aims to build collective synergies between like minded change agents in the form of regional collaborations to work towards the next best practices of informing good governance and impacting policy changes.