Buyer purchasing practices have the most known impacts on Working Time, Contracts and Human Resources (HR), and Compensation; with some evidence of impacts on Occupational Health and Safety; and minimal evidence of impacts on Child Labor, Forced Labor, Freedom of Association, and Discrimination.

Most of the research findings connecting purchasing practices to factory-level noncompliances were available prior to COVID-19, suggesting that COVID-19 primarily intensified known impacts rather than creating completely new ones.

This evidence should be used to guide companies’ human rights due diligence efforts. Buyers’ purchasing practices clearly create risks in global supply chains and the evidence identifies “starting points” for retroactively investigating the root causes of persistent noncompliances, in addition to highlighting opportunities to proactively prevent adverse human rights impacts.