Sustainability-focused data solutions company diginex announced the launch of diginexAPPRISE, a new supply chain transparency platform, aimed at enabling companies to hear directly from workers in the supply chain, in order to improve working conditions and protect worker rights.

The new solution comes amid growing demand for supply chain sustainability data, as businesses increasingly expand the focus of their sustainability efforts to encompass their value chains, and as governments and regulators introduce measures requiring companies to assess and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their value chains. In February, for example, the European Commission issued a proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence to tackle human rights and environmental impacts across global value chains, imposing a due diligence duty on companies in high-risk sectors to mitigate adverse impacts in their own operations, subsidiaries and value chains.

The new multilingual application was developed in response to challenges faced during social audits, including language barriers, lack of privacy and coverage of key social indicators, to identify forced labor.

The open-source application gathers working conditions-related data from workers in global supply chains, enabling companies to deploy surveys to workers in their supply chain on a range of topics, including gender equality, responsible recruitment, and a pulse check on living and working conditions. Workers can be interviewed anonymously and remotely through technology in their native language.

Initially developed by the United Nations University Institute in Macau in partnership with The Mekong Club, an organization working to bring about sustainable practices against modern slavery, the solution is integrated into the company’s due diligence platform, diginexLUMEN, launched in March this year, and it has already scaled to over 50,000 workers across 15 countries.

Mark Blick, CEO, diginex said:

 “Companies are realising that people-led due diligence tools that enable individuals to share their experiences provide the best insight into actual working conditions on the ground. Our work with The Mekong Club is helping to overcome – and eliminate – unethical behaviour and ensure workers’ rights are respected around the world. Through diginexAPPRISE, organisations will be able to align their approaches with emerging laws, including the German Supply Chain Act and the upcoming EU Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence.”