Risk country categorization (Country Groups + Water Risk)

On this page you can find out how we categorize all the risk country filters. Keep in mind that different regulatory bodies use different definitions for high or low risk. Therefore, align your provided water risk raw score to be more precisely compliant. 

Water Risk (WRF): WRF stands for Water Risk Filter which is a tool made by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) aimed to help companies assess and respond to water-related risks across its operations.

Click here to download a detailed Excel sheet to get an insight of the Water Risk (WRF) metrics from WWF (World Wildlike Fund).

The file displays average basin risk scores of countries and territories as well as administrative divisions level 1 (sub-national divisions), and their respective rankings. The risk score classification is consistent throughout all risk categories and risk types, where:

The Water Risk Filter takes an averge of:

Basin Physical Risk (BPH)

Basin Regulatory Risk (BRG)

Basin Reputaional Risk (BRP)

1. Water Scarsity (BPH - BRC1)
2. Flooding (BPH - BRC2)
3. Water Quality (BPH - BRC3)
4. Ecosystem Services Status (BPH - BRC4)
5. Enabling Environment (BRG - BRC5)
6. Institutions & Governance (BRG - BRC6)
7. Management Instruments (BRG - BRC7)
8. Infrastructure & Finance (BRG - BRC8)
9. Cultural Importance (BRP - BRC9)
10. Biodiversity Importance (BRP - BRC10)
11. Media Scrutiny (BRP - BRC11)
12. Conflict (BRP - BRC12)

WGI

The World Governance Indicators (WGI) is a well-known source of information on the quality of governance in various countries around the world. The WGI methodology is based on six indicators: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. The WGI provides a percentile rank for each country, ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better governance.

The WGI percentile rank to classify countries into three categories: high risk, medium risk, and low risk. Countries with a WGI percentile rank below 60 are classified as high risk, those between 60-80 are classified as medium risk, and countries with a percentile rank above 80 are classified as low risk.

• WGI score of 60 or lower: High risk
• WGI Score of 60-80: Medium risk
• WGI score above 80: Low risk

AMFORI

AMFORI uses WGI (Worldwide Governance Indicators) to determine the levels of risks related to governance in sourcing countries.

For the Governance Indicators, there are 6 dimensions of governance identified by the World Bank.

1. Voice and Accountability (VA) – capturing perceptions of the extent to which a country's citizens can participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and free media.
2. Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism (PV) – capturing perceptions of the likelihood that the government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means, including politically‐motivated violence and terrorism.
3. Government Effectiveness (GE) – capturing perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government's commitment to such policies.
4. Regulatory Quality (RQ) – capturing perceptions of the ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development.
5. Rule of Law (RL) – capturing perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence.
6. Control of Corruption (CC) – capturing perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as the ‘capture’ of the state by elites and private interests.

• Risk countries: Countries with WGI average rating between 0-60 or three or more individual dimensions rated below 60.
• Low-risk countries: Countries with WGI average rating higher than 60 and no more than two individual dimensions rated below 60.

GLOBAL G.A.P.

The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat has developed a methodology for conducting the required worker interviews, including rules for sampling, interview duration, and document review. This methodology is called the country risk classification concept.

In short, each country is assigned a risk classification that determines to what extent the presence of workers is required at the farm on the day of the GRASP assessment.

Risk country classification

The GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat uses rankings issued by the World Bank (Worldwide Governance Indicators, WGI) to group countries into three different levels:

• High-risk countries:  Countries with a WGI rating from 0 to 49
• Medium-risk countries:  Countries with a WGI rating from 50 to 79
• Low-risk countries:  Countries with a WGI rating from 80 to 100

The list of countries assigned to the three categories is updated every year, following the revision periods of the World Bank.

SIFAV

The list of high water risk regions of the Sustainability Initiative Fruit and Vegetables (SIFAV) forms the basis for the SIFAV Basket of Water Standards that has been developed by SIFAV to promote and mainstream the implementation of Good Water Management Standards in high water risk regions.

The list is based on the water risk filter of WWF. It takes the overall risk score of the central location of each region and includes all regions in the list with a score of 3.0 and higher (high risk and very high risk). The overall risk score is based on WWF's default weighting framework that takes the physical risk (quantity and quality), regulatory risk, and reputational risk into account. For more information see https://waterriskfilter.panda.org.

The Basket of Water Standards is developed by the Sustainability Initiative Fruit and Vegetables (SIFAV) to promote and mainstream the verification of good water management on farms in high-water risk regions. SIFAV regards water as a priority topic that needs to be acted on to realize its ambition of a more sustainable fresh produce sector. 

The SIFAV partners have committed to jointly implement approved good water management standards to at least 70% of volumes coming from high-water risk regions by 2025. To achieve this ambition, SIFAV has developed this Basket of Water Standards as well as a list of regions that are considered high water risk. The list of high-risk water regions can be found here.

Aqueduct (4.0)

World Resources Institute’s (WRI’s) Aqueduct information platform compiles advances in hydrological modeling, remotely sensed data, and published data sets informing companies, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) about water-related risks.

The water risk framework follows a composite index approach and allows multiple water-related risks to be combined. There are three hierarchical levels, with 13 indicators covering various types of water risk.

The water risk indicator have been aggregated by category (quantity, quality, reputational, and overall).

We divide our water risk country groups to:

• <10% = Low risk
• 10-20% = Medium risk
• 20-40% = Medium - High risk
• 40-80% = High risk
• >80% = Extremely high risk

Click here to see a detailed description on how the World Resources Institute calculate the percentages.

EU member states

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• The Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• The Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovenia
• Slovakia
• Spain
• Sweden

Exceptional areas within the EU countries are:

• Aland Islands (Finland)
• Canary Islands (Spain)
• French overseas departments and territories, including Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Reunion
• Mount Athos (Greece)