Community accountability in community businesses

In 2017, IVAR was commissioned by Power to Change to undertake research exploring community accountability within the community business sector. Power to Change sees community accountability as one of the core characteristics of community businesses and requires the businesses it supports to demonstrate how the local community is involved in the running of the business.

The purpose of this research was to refine the way ‘community accountability’ is defined in this context, to expand understanding of what it looks like in practice, and to increase understanding of how it can be assessed, supported and demonstrated.