 Dhaka will be home to the South Asian branch of a global network that works to ensure that public institutions are held responsible and accountable to the people for delivering public services. The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability-South Asia Region (ANSA-SAR) was officially launched in the capital on Sunday. It will be coordinated from the Institute of Governance Studies at BRAC University. "We need to move from elections to what happens between votes," Gopakumar Thampi, chief operating officer of ANSA-SAR, said in the launching ceremony. Funded by the World Bank Institute, the network has already partnered with organisations from seven countries to focus on four areas including climate change adaptation and mitigation, right to information, procurement rules and citizen watchdogs (third party monitoring). Members from partner organisations in different countries came to attend the launching ceremony. They emphasised the need to share knowledge in an effort to enhance capacities for tackling corruption and ensuring accountability. The acting vice chancellor of BRAC University Md. Golam Samdani Fakir was also present at the launch at the Journalism Training and Research Initiative.