Project FAIR principles and standards research summary 2020

Project FAIR was established to support International Non-Governmental Organisations’ (INGOs) to move toward fairer reward systems, which actively question the appropriateness of remunerating international staff at higher rates compared to locally hired, similarly qualified, national employees. In 2017 Project FAIR conducted research to understand the barriers INGOs faced when altering these practices. One outcome of the research was the collaborative development of a set of Principles & Standards of Fair INGO Reward, which aimed to articulate a shared understanding of what fair reward means for the sector. 5 Principles were established: Ethical Reward, Transparency, Equity, Sustainability and Compliance & Risk, each underpinned by sets of standards. The current research investigated how the Principles and Standards are being utilised as organisations strive to make pay fairer, and identified the challenges faced in applying them. The research concludes by offering some recommendations on how the Principles & Standards might be implemented more effectively.