World Day of Social Justice: Risk Management as a Tool of Social Justice

20 February is World Day of Social Justice - a good moment to ask an uncomfortable question in the third sector:

When we say “managing risk”, are we actually just moving it onto people with less power?

Think of a very normal scenario:

A small community organisation signs a 30-page sub-grant. The project is about protecting migrants or people displaced by conflict.

On paper, the funder “supports local leadership”.

In the contract, the local partner carries: fraud risk, delivery risk, safeguarding risk, security risk and reputational risk – often with very little money for systems or staff.

If anything goes wrong, the people closest to the problem are also closest to the consequences. That isn’t just a governance issue. It’s a social justice issue.

⚖️ Risk as a fairness question

We often treat risk like a technical puzzle: heatmaps, ratings, registers. But underneath, the real questions are very human:

• Who is being asked to take personal and organisational risk?

• Who has the buffers (e.g., reserves, lawyers, reputation) to recover if something goes wrong?

• Who gets a say in the risk decisions that affect their safety and their work?

If the answer is “funders decide, partners absorb”, our risk management is quietly reinforcing the same inequalities we say we want to reduce.

👉 We must move from risk transfer to risk sharing.

At The Risk Collaborative, we talk about moving from risk transfer to risk sharing – using tools like the 3P Framework (Project–Partner–Patron) and objective-centred risk management (OCRM).

It’s not a complicated theory. It’s a different set of habits:

• Start with the project objective and ask honestly: what could go wrong here, for whom?

• Let partners describe their own strengths and limits, instead of treating capacity as an exam to “pass”.

• Ask patrons (funders) to be clear about where they can be flexible (e,g, budget, timelines, reporting) and where they truly can’t.

• Then match risk with support: if someone is carrying a serious safeguarding or security risk, fund the systems, training and time that takes. Don’t just add another clause.

👀 What social-justice risk management might look like in practice

Some small shifts that add up:

🤝 Budgeting for local staff wellbeing and security as non-negotiables, not “nice to have if there’s room”.

🤝 Using flexible funding and lighter reporting where the context is volatile, instead of asking partners to absorb all the shocks.

🤝 Standing alongside partners when something goes wrong, rather than reaching straight for termination clauses and reputational distance.

On World Day of Social Justice, social media will be full of big statements. One practical way our sector can honour the day is simple:

Next time we update a risk register or draft a contract, let’s ask:

“Is this arrangement fair – and if not, what would it take to share this risk more evenly?”

That’s where risk management stops being just paperwork and starts becoming part of the larger solution.