At Just Fair, we often talk about the importance of accountability. It’s one of the core principles of a human rights-based approach, alongside participation, non-discrimination, empowerment and legality.
But accountability isn’t just something we ask of governments and public bodies. It’s also something we strive to embed in our own work.
As an organisation working alongside communities, grassroots groups and people with lived experience, we believe accountability means more than reporting on what we’ve done. It means building relationships based on solidarity, sharing power, being transparent, listening to feedback and being answerable to the people we work with. We are committed not only to being accountable, but to increasing our accountability to the communities we serve.
Sharing power
Community organisations and people with lived experience are experts in their own lives and communities. Our role is to provide support, resources and opportunities, not to determine priorities.
We work in partnership and solidarity with communities and community organisations, recognising that meaningful change is strongest when those most affected by an issue are able to shape the response.
Through our Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG), community partnerships and peer learning spaces, we aim to create opportunities for others to lead, influence and shape the work, while ensuring credit is given where it is due.
Our programmes with community partners are co-designed to support organisations to use human rights in ways that reflect their specific priorities, rather than delivering one-size-fits-all solutions. We prioritise bringing partners together in shared learning spaces, so they can exchange ideas and expertise to build collective action.
This includes spaces like the London Communities Human Rights Programme’s quarterly meetings, and our peer learning spaces for the Human Rights in the Community and Racial Justice through Human Rights programmes.
Members of our LEAG are similarly invited to be part of how we design projects and engage with communities, and their experiences are woven into our campaigning and policy work, so we can better advocate for change informed by lived and living experience.
We are particularly conscious of the need to support and amplify the voices of people who often have the least power and are least likely to be heard. This means thinking carefully about barriers to participation and adapting our approaches so that people can engage in ways that work for them.
Supporting meaningful decision-making
We work with partners to co-design projects from the outset, rather than imposing solutions from above. This approach helps ensure our work reflects the priorities, expertise and experiences of the people most affected by the issues we are trying to address.
We would like communities not only to influence individual projects, but to help shape the direction of Just Fair itself. For example, our LEAG contributes to organisational decision-making, and LEAG members’ lived experience perspectives informed the development of our Strategy 2025-2028.
By creating shared ownership and making space for different forms of participation, we aim to ensure that decision-making is informed by those closest to the issues.
Being answerable
Feedback only matters if it leads to change. We build opportunities for feedback throughout our programmes and use what we learn to improve how we work.
From simplifying application processes and offering different ways to engage, to improving accessibility and adapting support, our programmes continue to evolve because of what partners and LEAG members tell us. We recognise that people’s circumstances, needs and access requirements can change over time, and we aim to remain responsive and flexible.
Feedback from community parters has shaped how we design and deliver our peer learning spaces, helping us create formats that better reflect the capacity and priorities of community-led organisations.
Being answerable means being willing to listen, reflect and change course when needed.
Accountability is an ongoing journey
We know accountability is not something that can be achieved once and for all. It requires continuous reflection, learning and improvement.
We are on this journey ourselves. With support from the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) we are reflecting on what works, where we can do better, and how we can adapt our approach.
For us, accountability means working alongside communities in solidarity, sharing power wherever possible, creating opportunities for those with the least power to be heard, and remaining open to challenge from the people we work with. It also means being willing to adapt our work when communities tell us something needs to change.
Find out more about the organisations involved in our community programmes on our dedicated page.
By Laura Grace, Human Rights Officer
Background image by Edinah
