For smallholder farmers and self-employed workers worldwide, a living income means earning enough from their work to afford nutritious food, decent housing, healthcare and education for their children, while building resilience against unexpected shocks. In practical terms, it translates into fairer prices, more stable trading relationships and business practices that enable farming households to secure dignified and sustainable livelihoods.

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is the first piece of legislation to explicitly recognise the right to a living income and a living wage as binding human rights by enshrining them in its Annex. By doing so, the Directive elevates living income and living wage from voluntary commitments to legal standards that companies must respect as part of their due diligence obligations.

As the European Commission prepares its official guidance for implementation, the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, in partnership with AxHA, has developed this shadow guidance to set out clear and practical expectations for companies and regulators on what meaningful living income due diligence should entail.

The project has been developed through close dialogue and consultation with human rights experts, living income specialists, legal practitioners, smallholder farmers, responsible companies and other actors across global supply chains. Bringing these perspectives together helps ensure that the recommendations are legally robust, practical and grounded in the everyday realities of the people whose livelihoods are most directly affected.

Designed to support policymakers, regulators and businesses, this guide seeks to ensure that the right to a living income is not diluted in the course of implementation. As the European Commission prepares its forthcoming guidance, which is due by July 2027, this publication aims to serve as inspiration and highlight the importance of clear and coherent standards so that this right is meaningfully upheld and effectively translated into practice.

Read the full publication here.

Get in touch: 

For more information about the project, please contact our Senior Policy and Project Coordinator, Alena Kahle, at kahle@fairtrade-advocacy.org

This publication has been produced with the support of  the Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains Initiative (SASI) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).