Frequently asked questions

What are the human rights risk themes covered by the dashboard?
For human rights risks, we incorporate 8 themes:

• Access to land and material resources
• Child labour
• Discrimination
• Forced labour
• Freedom of association and collective bargaining
• Insufficient remuneration
• Occupational health and safety
• Violence and harassment

What are the environmental risk themes covered by the dashboard?
For environmental risks, we assess 7 different themes:

• Acidification
• Biodiversity loss
• Climate change
• Deforestation
• Ecotoxicity
• Eutrophication: fresh water & marine
• Water stress

What definitions of the risk themes do you apply?
The definitions of the risk themes applied in the dashboard are outlined in the full methodology document(externe link).

What is the rationale for selecting these themes?
The selected themes were chosen to, combined, cover the most relevant sustainability risks in global agricultural supply chains. They are aligned with major international standards and (regulatory) frameworks in the field of Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Responsible Business Conduct, such as: the UN Guiding Principles, OECD Guidelines, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and the EU due diligence legislation (CSDDD).

How can I access all human rights and environmental risks scores?
You can access all human rights and environmental risks scores by signing up for the free dashboard. After signing up you immediately have access to 8 human rights risks scores and 7 environmental risks scores, specific to the cocoa and cotton sector in Cameroon.

For more countries and/or commodities, explore our premium dashboard.

Which agricultural commodities are covered by the dashboard?
The Due Diligence Dashboard currently covers cocoa, cotton, soy, palm oil, rubber, maize, wheat, rice and coffee across 34 countries. Please visit our catalogue page to view the available country-commodity combinations.

Which countries are covered by the dashboard?
The Due Diligence Dashboard currently covers 34 countries Please visit our catalogue page to view the available country-commodity combinations.

Why aren’t all risk themes assessed at the subnational level?
For 7 risk themes, we do not have subnational risk scores. This is because subnational risk scores require suitable secondary data at the subnational level. By suitable, we mean data that is reliable, relevant to the theme and available for at least about 100 countries to ensure sufficient coverage.

Subnational risk scores are available for 8 risk themes: child labour, forced labour, discrimination, insufficient remuneration, occupational health and safety, water stress, biodiversity loss and deforestation.

Read our protocol(externe link) to learn more about the data selection criteria.

What is a sustainability risk assessment?
A sustainability risk assessment is a high-level assessment of the most salient risks - based on criteria of severity and likelihood - that companies may encounter within their supply chains. This concerns either their own business operations, their direct suppliers, or their indirect suppliers. A sustainability risk assessment typically consists out of three levels of assessment:

• A high-level risk assessment, that identifies key risks within a specific geography, sector, and product. This assessment, combined with enterprise-specific risks enables a first prioritisation of risks to be used as input for deeper risk assessment. The environmental risk scores are intended for this purpose.
• An in-depth risk and impact assessment is the next step. This is an assessment of company-specific risks by assessing prioritised Responsible Business Conduct risks and prioritised operations, suppliers, or other business relationships. This second step provides a company-specific basis to address, prevent, mitigate, and remediate (potential) adverse impacts.
• An event-based risk assessment, which is an incidental risk assessment, based on the occurrence of specific changes. It can be triggered, for example, by changes in business activities, by new substantiated knowledge such as reporting on incidents, or by changes in the operating environment, whether actual or expected, such as societal tensions.

How are the risk scores calculated?
Human rights risk scores
The human rights risk scores are calculated using a comprehensive methodology combining existing data on various national and subnational theme-related indicators with insights from a standardised literature review. These scores support your initial steps towards aligning with Due Diligence legislation. For the full methodology see the methodology page.

Environmental risk scores
We assess deforestation, biodiversity loss, and water stress using a spatial analysis, which uses the spatial patterns in production areas and combines them with spatial maps related to each theme. Climate change, eutrophication, acidification, ecotoxicity, and water use are assessed using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). All scores range from 0 (no risk) to 5 (high risk). For more details, please see the methodology page.

Why are risk scores missing in my dashboard?
When risk scores are not shown in your dashboard for a specific theme within a country-commodity combination, this means that data is missing for crucial indicators. As a result, no meaningful assessment can be made for this risk theme. We are currently working on adding contextual information to the dashboard.

How should I interpret the risk scores?
A risk score indicates the likelihood of a risk for a specific commodity in a particular region. The human rights risk scores are benchmarked to a single score between 0 and 5, where 0 indicates no risk at all, 1 indicates a very low risk, and 5 indicates a very high risk. The human rights risk scores can be compared across different commodity sectors and various regions within a country. It is important to note that risk scores on the lower end of the scale, for example a risk score of 2, still require further assessment.

The environmental risk scores also range from 0, indicating no risk, to 5, indicating very high risk. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used for four risk themes: acidification, climate change, ecotoxicity and eutrophication. For these themes, scores can be used to compare different countries within the same commodity sector. They should not be used to compare different commodity sectors.

Spatial analysis is used for three risk themes: biodiversity loss, deforestation and water stress. For these themes, risk scores can be compared across commodities, regions and countries.

What are the next steps I can take based on these risk scores?
Organisations can use the risk scores directly as input for a prioritisation of risks for the second level of risk analysis: a company-specific in-depth risk and impact assessment. Following the OECD guidelines, the user is expected to combine these risk scores with an enterprise-specific risk assessment as a basis for prioritisation. This involves high-level scoping of a company’s areas of operation and type of business relationships.

The user combines these two assessments to prioritise human rights risks and specific operations, suppliers, or business operations as input for a company-specific risk assessment. Countries, regions, and/or commodity sectors with higher levels of risk and prioritised operations, suppliers, or business relationships could be the first ones to be tackled by a companies’ measures aimed at e.g. the prevention or remediation of (potential) adverse impacts.

Based on the risk scores, companies take steps in areas such as:

• Strategy and policy development: Gaining clarity on the major risks within the company's chain of activities to prioritise risks and impact areas, engage internal stakeholders, and develop policies to manage these risks.
• Being compliant with CSDDD: Comprehending the steps required for compliance, including the obligation of risk identification, and conducting thorough investigations into major risks to formulate action plans for their mitigation.
• Determining the right KPIs when developing an improvement programme, and monitoring, benchmarking, and communicating results.
• R&D development: Learning from other areas where certain risks are lower or decreasing, including benchmarking.

The CSDDD doesn’t apply to me, why should I still care?
While other EU supply chain legislation might still be relevant from a legal compliance perspective, many companies and countries have committed themselves to adhere to the principles of the OECD Guidelines and UNGPs. There are more reasons to engage in a risk-based assessment:

• An ethical pledge to adhere to social and environmental standards
• A practical tool for screening new sourcing locations
• A starting point to make concrete contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• A necessary way to guarantee the future viability of specific supply chains

What does the EU supply chain legislation imply for my organisation?
Several pieces of EU legislation have a due diligence component, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Forced Labour Regulation, and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). All these pieces of legislation require companies to take concrete steps, although their exact requirements differ, to systematically identify, assess and address human rights or environmental risks in their operations and supply chains, and prove that they have done so through documented, risk-based due diligence processes.

The adopted Omnibus package (2025), meant to simplify and reduce the regulatory burden, has revised some of the thresholds, timing and scope of EU supply chain legislation, delaying the implementation of various pieces of legislation and decreasing their scope and requirements.

The OECD Guidelines and UNGPs play a central role as a reference framework for many of the EU’s due diligence laws. As such, they provide a useful starting point for establishing a harmonised framework for broader due diligence compliance.

What does the CSDDD imply for my organisation?
The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) mandates that companies operating within the European Union integrate human rights and environmental considerations into their business strategies and operations. This involves identifying, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for actual and potential adverse human rights and environmental impacts.

Companies are required to establish and implement due diligence processes, which include regular assessments, taking appropriate measures to prevent or mitigate risks, tracking the effectiveness of these measures, and publicly reporting on their due diligence activities. The directive aims to promote sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour, ensuring that businesses contribute positively to global sustainability goals.

The Omnibus package (2025) meant a severe renegotiation of the original directive, including delaying its implementation, narrowing its scope, removing the uniform liability rules and altering the value chain cap. The adoption of the final text is expected by the end of 2025. With the Omnibus package under way, it is likely that the CSDDD will only apply to a limited number of companies across the EU, with only the largest multinational companies, in terms of size and revenue, remaining in scope.

How do the risk scores help my organisation to be compliant with the EU CSDDD legislation?
The EU CSDDD requires companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how actual and potential adverse impacts are addressed. The directive allows for the prioritisation of topics to be addressed. The risk scores can be used for this step. Please note that relatively low risk scores still require further assessment to determine if any company-specific adverse impacts may be at play.

Can I access the scores offline?
Yes, you can access and use the scores offline. You can download the data in Excel, print or save the scores as a pdf, and download visual representations as PNG files.

What if I have a question about the dashboard and the scores?
Our human rights, LCA and spatial experts are available to provide comprehensive information about the dashboard and the scores. We are happy to assist you and discuss your needs, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

How do you keep the scores up to date?
The current risk scores are based on the 2026 update. The next update is expected to follow in 2028. Future updates may include newly available data, changes in data sources and/or methodological refinements. Users will be notified when updated country-commodity combinations become available and will receive information about the option to acquire them. Once purchased, users retain perpetual access to the selected risk scores.

Why does a non-profit research institution charge for scores?
Fees are necessary to ensure our scores remain up to date, expand their coverage, and maintain the highest quality. They support ongoing data collection, methodological improvements, and the continuous enhancement of the dashboard.

How are indicators selected, and how is data quality assessed?
The selection of the indicators depends on the availability of data. When there are no direct indicators available, we use proxies instead. In addition to relevance to the theme, indicators are also required to meet three other criteria.

First, we rely on data sources which have a history in data collection, are transparent about their methods, and provide updates regularly - this is important as a risk assessment also needs to be updated on a regular basis.

Second, we look for data sources that are independent, as far as possible, meaning government (UN, ILO, World bank, OECD), research centres (World Policy Center), or a consortium of NGOs and government.

Third, data should preferably cover more than 100 countries, which is important for upscaling of the number of countries and commodities covered. Furthermore, we check the indicators for reliability, as well as for the reference year. If we find highly outdated data entries, defined as more than 10 years old, then we exclude them from our analysis.

The methodology is developed with the most reliable and up-to-date scientific knowledge, and has been validated by thematic and methodological experts.

What are your usage restrictions?
The use of our Due Diligence Dashboard is subject to several restrictions. For a detailed overview of these restrictions, please refer to Article 3.2 (Use Restrictions) of our Terms of Services.

What is our licensing policy?
Subject to the terms and conditions outlined in our Terms of Service, you are granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable license to access and use our Due Diligence Dashboard for internal business purposes, with certain jurisdictional exceptions. For further details, please refer to Article 4 (License to Services) of our Terms of Services.

How should data be cited?
When using data from our Due Diligence Dashboard, proper attribution to Wageningen Food Views Due Diligence Dashboard must be provided in accordance with Article 3.2 (ix) of our Terms of Services, e.g., “Wageningen Food Views Due Diligence Dashboard”.