Human Trafficking Risk Index That May Provide Visibility Into a Company’s “Family Tree”

In a hyper-connected global economy, where businesses and consumers increasingly make decisions based upon brand reputation and responsible corporate practices, companies large and small need increased visibility into the multiple layers of their supply chain to mitigate hazards, achieve compliance, and enable the ethical procurement of goods and services.

Dun & Bradstreet has recently issued its Human Trafficking Risk (HTR) index, a possible solution designed to help companies better manage their global supply chains by providing a better view into a company’s family tree and corporate linkages, helping to gain transparency into the multiple layers of vendors used throughout the procurement process.

As SCMR has noted before, companies may unknowingly be using forced labor in their procurement of commodities since, to date, a view into the full chain of vendors and suppliers has been difficult to attain.

Dun & Bradstreet’s HTR index uses proprietary data from its global database of 250 million business records, along with public data from the U.S. Department of State1 and the U.S. Department of Labor2, to analyze conditions surrounding areas where goods are produced and assign a score to that region and commodity.

Such technological “fix” cannot happen too soon, as supply chain managers continue to grapple with one of global trade’s most vexing problem.

The International Labor Organization estimates there are over 19 million victims of exploitive forced labor worldwide. The most common form of human trafficking is forced labor in domestic work, agriculture, construction, and manufacturing.

Recent domestic and global regulations - including the US Federal Acquisition Regulations guidelines around Human Trafficking (2015); Modern Slavery Act (United Kingdom, 2015); and Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (2016) - have instilled mandatory audits and reporting of supply chains including fines and in some instances, barring of goods from entering certain countries, in a global attempt to eradicate human trafficing.

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