22. October 2026

Scaling living income: Integrating Living Income into due diligence policy and the case of the CSDDD

There are many ways to move towards a living income through policy levers.  One of these is by integrating living income into market policy.  A prominent example of this is the integration of the living income into the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

The CSDDD requires companies to track and address human rights issues in their supply chains – including living income. The case describes the process of negotiation around the CSDDD and shares lessons on advocacy and policy development.

The CSDDD imposes a form of mandatory due diligence on companies in the EU, regarding the identification, assessment, prevention, mitigation and remediation of human rights violations, including living income (among others). This puts the burden of proof on companies, who will be expected to more actively engage with their supply chain – including with smallholders.

It heavily involved governments of the European Union, civil society, farming households, governments of exporting countries, and companies (both importers and exporters).

This case yielded several lessons for policy-oriented living income practitioners, including the need to:

  • Recognise the interaction between policy at the level of ‘importing governments’ and ‘exporting governments’
  • Trust the influence of step-by-step mobilisation around a common theme, such as living income
  • Be consistent in language, solutions, and arguments around living income
  • Continue building a structural, consolidated advocacy coalition around living income, reaching the right people
  • Integrate living income in a wider, multidimensional agenda of other social, environmental and economic issues

In this workshop, we will unpack these lessons and see how they can be translated to similar initiatives, as well as share other examples of advocacy.

This is the second in a three-part series exploring living income policy case studies. Register for other two sessions on the Living Income Differential (LID) in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and Vietnam’s national coffee sector strategy. 

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