Piloting a method for the aggregation and visualisation of audit data to enhance forced labour risk identification

Ethical auditing is one key way that companies assess compliance with labour standards and identify issues relating to forced labour. Essential information on working conditions is collected each year across thousands of factories, yet data remains proprietary, is not harmonised in format or content, and is under-utilised with costs often passed on to workers. This can lead to an underestimation of the risk of forced labour in supply chains. To overcome such challenges, the authors piloted a unique method for the collection, aggregation, analysis and visualisation of social audit data from disparate, pre-existing but hitherto under-utilised resources. Data from 2,946 audits across six Asian countries was aggregated to pilot an online interactive risk screening tool. This paper describes methods used by the team and provides an overview of the online tool. Implications for improving social compliance auditing, risk identification, data classification and aggregation are discussed.