5-Steps Toward Living Income in Value Chains
Why Living Income?
Achieving Living Income is fundamental to building resilient agricultural sectors and inclusive global value chains: it is essential for both strengthening smallholder livelihoods and enabling long-term sustainability across commodities. Living Income is not a technical fix, but a shared responsibility that requires fostering multi-stakeholder partnerships and taking immediate coordinated action.
About the Roadmap
First launched in 2020, the Roadmap on Living Income turns 16 years of insights into an actionable plan that helps companies take ambitious, aligned actions to improve incomes and close living income gaps of farming households. Updated in 2026, the Roadmap reflects the evolution of corporate human rights responsibilities, growing international recognition of living income, and insights gained through sustained collaboration with companies, trade unions, standards, international organisations, governments, NGOs and living income benchmark providers.
Living income is a shared responsibility. Through the Roadmap, we set out five clear steps that empower companies to accelerate action toward living wages:
There are many different methodologies and distractions along the way, and the IDH roadmap helps you stay on track.
How does the Roadmap align with LICOP Guidance on living income?
IDH’s Roadmap on Living Income is informed by the sectoral leadership and essential resources of the Living Income Community of Practice (LICOP). The Roadmap incorporates practical tools and a procurement lens to catalyse business practice change, through instruments such as responsible contracting, to ensure equitable distribution of value and risks, cultivating a robust and sustainable agricultural sector.
Through our five-step approach, the Roadmap supports companies in putting living income into practice in line with LICOP recommendations, including the principles of inclusion in advancing living income.
Roadmap Partners
IDH leads the Roadmap on Living Income. We orchestrate collaboration and work with a broad network of partners to design, test, and put living income approaches into action across global value chains.
Working with strategic and technical groups, we shape the Roadmap's direction, share expertise, and co‑develop practical solutions.