The European Union has identified human rights and environmental due diligence as a key element in achieving its economic and sustainability objectives. The DiliCHANCE project, a Horizon Europe project funded by the European Commission, runs from 2024-2027. It will provide practical, field-tested tools, models, guidance, and engagement opportunities on due diligence for minerals sector businesses active in the European market. Particular sectors of focus include the renewable energy, mobility and electronics sectors. DiliCHANCE will also provide a one-stop-shop (help desk) for minerals sector due diligence.
Levin Sources is a core partner in a multi-stakeholder consortium carrying out the DiliCHANCE project, working alongside Vienna University’s Institute for Managing Sustainability, EIT Raw Materials, the World Resources Forum, Statik, Solidaridad, WWF, KPMG Austria, the French Geological Survey (BGRM), and the Association of Women in Mining in Africa.
A key thread running through the entire project’s design is the centrality of affected people and environments in due diligence efforts. At each project stage, the perspectives of affected people, and insights from circumstances in affected environments, will be considered and integrated, including through work in a small selection of minerals-producing countries.
Project at-a-glance and Levin Sources’ role
Levin Sources is leading and/or contributing to all workstreams in the DiliCHANCE project. The workstreams include the development of the one-stop-shop (help desk) for due diligence, testing current tools and approaches to due diligence used in the sector, working with key stakeholders to developed improved tools and approaches for due diligence, and improving assurance models for due diligence. The project includes extensive activities for stakeholder engagement and outreach, and dissemination of materials.
The work package Levin Sources is primarily responsible for designing and carrying out is focused on identifying improved models for assurance of businesses’ due diligence measures.
Bringing a people-centric approach to meaningful assurance of due diligence
The assurance and verification of businesses’ due diligence measures play an increasingly decisive role in businesses’ determination of which measures they undertake and where they focus their investment of resources for due diligence. While assurance and verification are part of due diligence as defined in international normative frameworks (the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises for Responsible Business Conduct), their outsize influence in due diligence implementation is largely driven by a historical intra-industry compliance mindset in due diligence (particularly in the minerals sector), as well as by the understandable necessity of verifying due diligence efforts as part of compliance with due diligence regulations.
Current evidence looking back at over a decade of practice indicates that existing approaches to assurance and verification of human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD), particularly in minerals value chains, have not significantly advanced positive outcomes of that due diligence for affected people and environments. Traditional assurance and verification practices in minerals value chains have focused primarily on the existence of policies and procedures, with limited examination of actual “performance” – meaning the assurance has not tended to tell users much about the impact of those policies and procedures on the people and environments they are meant to respect.
Affected people have tended to play a minimal – if any – role in assurance and verification processes, despite strong evidence indicating their participation is critical for accurate findings and resultant corrective actions. Major governmental and industry bodies have held regular exchanges over several years about the lack of efficacy and quality of assurance and verification in minerals value chains (see further discussion of this and recent examples here). However, at this time, an alternative pathway to more impactful assurance and verification that would further the aims of due diligence remains a work in progress.
The purpose of the work package on assurance led by Levin Sources is to advance thinking and practice on those pathways. Our key activities will include:
- critical analysis of existing practices
- examination of nascent promising approaches to identify pathways to potentially scale and further develop
- development of a means to ensure the centrality of affected people and environments in assurance and verification (the alternative/improved model)
- delivery of capacity building on this improved model for the increasingly large community of assurance practitioners providing services in due diligence.
- Work Package 1: A one-stop-shop for due diligence
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Work Package 1 builds dilichance.eu, a centralised website that gathers guidance, tools and studies to help companies that use minerals manage their human rights and environmental responsibilities. The site includes a self-check tool for businesses that are newer to due diligence, and project partners run webinars featuring expert speakers. EIT Raw Materials leads this work package, with Levin Sources contributing content and speaking at webinars. For companies, the website offers a single starting point instead of scattered sources of advice.
Closing the remedy gap in mineral supply chains: a case study (August 2026)
This deep vide explores the role of operational-level grievance mechanisms through a practical case study of a bauxite mining operation in Latin America, highlighting how proactive stakeholder engagement and impact management can strengthen access to remedy. Drawing on international standards and practical experience, it identifies key lessons for companies seeking to embed effective grievance mechanisms within their due diligence systems.
- Work Package 2: Testing and improving due diligence tools
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Work Package 2 examines the tools companies use for human rights and environmental due diligence, and asks how they could be improved. The team has assessed over 200 tools, from guidance documents to traceability systems and self-checks, alongside research into what businesses actually need from them, and is publishing detailed articles on specific tools. Vienna University of Economics and Business leads this work package. Levin Sources leads the development of principles to improve the tools toward the broader goal of tools that support improved outcomes for people and environments affected by business activity. Companies will have a clearer picture of what is available and what to look for when choosing tools.
- Work Package 3: Better practices for tackling risks
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Work Package 3 develops better ways for companies to put due diligence into practice. The team has reviewed current practices in minerals due diligence by a sample of minerals sector businesses (based on public disclosure), and interviewed businesses and business associations about what they do for due diligence and what they need. The World Resources Forum leads this work package. Levin Sources leads the task developing practical principles for local collaborations that address serious risks and harms in the supply chain, produced with a consultative group of civil society organisations, businesses and trade unions. This work responds to the fact that companies often find it hard to act on the risks they identify.
Principles for practitioners on implementing effective multi-stakeholder due diligence (Deliverable 3.4, July 2026, available soon)
Eight principles for setting up local collaborations: joint, on-the-ground efforts by companies, civil society and others to tackle serious problems in specific mining areas. Read them for practical guidance on choosing a focus, involving the right people, agreeing and resourcing actions, and for the case for businesses to take part.
- Work Package 4: Audits that work for affected people
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Work Package 4 looks at audits on companies' due diligence, and how to enable them to deliver more for the people and places affected by mineral supply chains. The team has completed a large-scale assessment of how twenty certification and audit schemes engage affected people, and has gathered case examples of better practice. It has developed a model for involving affected people in audits, working with audit firms and industry initiatives, and will train auditors and schemes to use it. Levin Sources leads this work package and most of its tasks. The aim is audits that reveal real conditions, not only procedures on paper.
Rightsholders' role in due diligence assurance schemes (Deliverable 4.1, July 2025)
Eight short policy briefs assessing how well twenty standards and audit schemes used in the minerals sector involve the people affected by mining and mineral supply chains. Read them to see where schemes succeed, where they fall short, from governance and transparency to grievance handling, and what schemes, companies and policy makers can do about it.
Lighthouse case guidance report (Deliverable 4.2, February 2026)
Ten real cases where audits genuinely listened to workers and communities, distilled into six practices that make engagement work, from independently identifying who is affected, to protecting participants from retaliation. A practical read for anyone who commissions, conducts or relies on audits.
Model to advance rightsholder engagement in mineral sector audits (Deliverable 4.3, Coming soon)
A practical toolbox for auditors and audit schemes on involving affected people before, during and after an audit. It sets out what good engagement requires, suggests ways around common barriers, and describes the conditions that schemes, audit firms and companies need to put in place to get the most out of audits.
Training on rightsholder engagement in audits (Deliverable 4.4, 2026–2027)
Partner with us during in-person training for audit professionals and other practitioners whose work relates to improving minerals audits’ efficacy. Trainings run from autumn 2026, with location in the UK, Switzerland, France and (from 2027) online.
Join us
DiliCHANCE will be informed by insights, testing feedback and co-creation with a range of stakeholders. If you’re interested in contributing or finding out more about the support DiliCHANCE will provide, please be in touch.
