Making Supplier Networks Transparent, Understandable and Responsive

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ChainReact (Making Supplier Networks Transparent, Understandable and Responsive)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2017-07-01 al 2018-12-31

Supplier networks touch virtually every corner of the globe. While everyone is familiar with some companies, the networks are largely invisible. Purchasing a device in Madrid can indirectly perpetuate debt slavery in Multan. Unless the supplier network connecting the two is made visible, the purchaser has no way to react to the supply chain’s problems. ChainReact is an effort to make supplier networks transparent, understandable, and responsive, so that companies and their stakeholders can see, react to, and ultimately transform corporate network impacts. As such, the main objectives of the project are: Identify irresponsible corporate activity ; Connect issues at corporate networks’ edges to network drivers and ; Incentivize companies to address the issues.

ChainReact created an integrated data network supported by three platform struts:

1. The Whistle, which helps advocacy groups manage campaigns to solicit bottom-up reports about corporate (mis)behavior
2. OpenCorporates (OC), the world’s largest open repository of corporate information connects the reports to major corporate brands through multi-level corporate network mapping
3. WikiRate (WR), an open analysis platform, integrates data from both sources (among others) and supports their interpretation via collaboratively-developed, dynamic, network-aware CSR metrics.

At the conclusion of the project the struts have been integrated to enable the flow of open network and company performance data. Information from The Whistle campaigns has been set up to flow to WikiRate.org in aggregate and anonymized form. OC and WR have been integrated through API to dynamically share information on headquarters, industry codes and supplier data, among information. WikiRate has developed tools to capture relationships between entities, linking companies to their suppliers and investors.

With this information connected, new analytics capacity was also developed on WikiRate to combine company performance data with network data and enable assessments (scores, ratings, etc.) of companies based on their suppliers, investors or vice versa. These assessments showcase the power of open and network data for investors and policy-makers, while bringing companies comparable information to incentivize improved sustainability performance and impact.

Since the beginning of the project, ChainReact achieved the following results:

- Technical integration of the WikiRate and OpenCorporates platforms, allowing data to flow between the two
- Development of new data models to systematically integrate national and regional industry codes.
- Development of a tool that enables the semi-automated extraction of data from tables in PDF files.
- Collected and imported more than 100,000 corporate relationships and more than 280,000 corporate performance data points to the WikiRate platform.
- Gathered information on 19,199 brand-level companies, 13,120 suppliers, and 137 investors.
- Development of a reporting platform (The Whistle) consisting of reporting front-end and NGO dashboard for those running campaigns.
- Development of production-ready reporting forms for two active campaigns and two which will begin in 2019.
- Contributed to the launch of two reporting campaigns (Rape is a Crime and End Everyday Racism) and amended reporting form and dashboard in response to user feedback.
- Developed a flexible reporting-form generation specification.
- Developed data aggregation and publication features to facilitate the export of data from the Whistle in the appropriate format for import on WikiRate.
- Conducted research (survey, interviews, and workshops) and engaged in dialogue with over 50 corporations to better understand both the barriers and incentives for companies to engage with their stakeholder communities and disclose more about their operations.
- Development of a company account feature on WikiRate.org to lower the barrier to engage with stakeholders in an official capacity.
- Development of analytical features on WikiRate.org that enable benchmarking and company performance assessments across corporate networks to allow meaningful conclusions to be drawn and increase the incentives for companies to disclose.
- Development of a company comparison dashboard, to further incentivize disclosure.
- Collaborated with the Walk Free Foundation to monitor the effects of the UK Modern Slavery Act on corporate reporting. Insights from the study fed into policy advice, which helped shape the new Australian Modern Slavery Act (passed in November 2018).
- Advocacy around the topic of open data has resulted in the adoption of an Open Data Standard for Supplier Disclosures by the influential Transparency Pledge Coalition.
- Advised 42 corporations on best practices for disclosing on activities in line with the UN SDGs, through participation in the Corporate Action Group, organized by UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative.
- Published 5 academic articles, covering topics such as peer production of knowledge, tools for data extraction, and the need for human rights reporting systems to accommodate slow/low tech users
- Representatives from the consortium spoke at 33 international events and conferences about the project’s activities and results.

NGO, and academic partners engaged to share and generate research that could then be used in analysis, advocacy campaigns and reports. Around 3,000 students contributed research, and more than 40 NGO and academic partners took part in projects. Project results were disseminated through multiple channels including participation conferences and events, as well as in multi-stakeholder coalitions to raise awareness and drive engagement. Coalitions and events served as productive settings for communicating insights to company and government stakeholders, among others.

ChainReact’s most significant advance in the state of the art of Environmental, Social and Governance data is its new dynamic connecting high-level brand metrics and low-level entity reporting via the integration of WikiRate.org and OpenCorporates. Corporate network mapping across the two platforms has been tested and successfully implemented using sophisticated algorithms and processes.

In addition, advances beyond state of the art have been also pushed through development of The Whistle, which facilitates gathering and verifying incident reports through digital and analogue methods, while offering integrated report collection with a dashboard for handling the reports. Moreover, no other tools offer a synergistic mechanism between the different struts the way The Whistle and WikiRate are linked through aggregated and anonymous reports coming from The Whistle.

The value proposition of open tools and resources makes ChainReact a project with potential to strike high impact for various stakeholders while developing results that can be exploited, reused and adapted. ChainReact tools offer the possibility for a wide community to trace data for companies and their suppliers (tier 1 for example), an impactful proposition that reflects major societal implications. The resources developed reach beyond borders of city and state, and begin to map connections beyond legal and geographic boundaries. In addition, the open, accessible tools create space for flattening the power structures which limit the voices of the less privileged, educated or economically stable, by amplifying their actions.

ChainReact Consortium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ChainReact (Making Supplier Networks Transparent, Understandable and Responsive)

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