At a time of persistent crises and pressing social and environmental challenges, harnessing economic growth for sustainable and inclusive development is more important than ever. Investment is a primary driver of such growth.
Mobilizing investment and ensuring that it contributes to sustainable development objectives is therefore a priority for all countries and for developing countries in particular. Against this background, a new generation of investment policies is emerging, pursuing a broader and more intricate development policy agenda, while building or maintaining a generally favourable investment climate.
“New generation” investment policies place inclusive growth and sustainable development at the heart of efforts to attract and benefit from investment. Although these concepts are not new in and by themselves, to date they have not been systematically integrated in mainstream investment policymaking.
“New generation” investment policies aim to operationalize sustainable development in concrete measures and mechanisms at the national and international level, and at the level of policy making and implementation.
Broadly, “new generation” investment policies strive to:
Create synergies with wider economic development goals or industrial policies, and achieve seamless integration in development strategies;
Foster responsible investor behavior and incorporate principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR);
Ensure policy effectiveness in their design and implementation and in the institutional environment within which they operate.
To help policymakers address the challenges posed by this new agenda, this report takes a fresh look at investment policymaking, and does so by taking a systemic approach, examining the universe of national and international policies through the lens of today’s key investment policy challenges. It explicitly focuses on the development dimension, and presents a comprehensive Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development (IPFSD).
The IPFSD consists of a set of Core Principles for investment policymaking, guidelines for national investment policies, and guidance for policymakers on how to engage in the international investment policy regime, in the form of options for the design and use of international investment agreements (IIAs).
The IPFSD is built on the experience of UNCTAD and other organizations in designing investment policies for development, and it incorporates lessons learned on what policies and measures work well, or not so well, under what circumstances. It represents the best endeavour by the UNCTAD secretariat, in collaboration with numerous international experts and investment stakeholders. It is the result of collective wisdom.
It is hoped that the IPFSD may serve as a reference for policymakers in formulating national investment policies and in negotiating investment agreements or revising existing ones. It can also serve as the basis for capacity building on investment policy and for UNCTAD’s technical assistance work. And it may come to act as a point of convergence for international cooperation on investment issues.
The IPFSD has been designed as a “living document”. UNCTAD will continuously update its contents based on feedback from its numerous policy forums and from its work in the field, and it will provide a platform for “open sourcing” of best practice investment policies.
