UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development but rebranded to its current name on the occasion of its 60th anniversary in 2024. It reports to both the General Assembly and the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). UNCTAD is composed of 195 member states and works with non-governmental organizations worldwide; its permanent secretariat is at UNOG in Geneva, Switzerland.
A bilateral investment treaty (BIT) is an agreement establishing the terms and conditions for private investment by nationals and companies of one state in another state. This type of investment is called foreign direct investment (FDI). BITs are established through trade pacts. A nineteenth-century forerunner of the BIT is the "friendship, commerce and navigation treaty" (FCN). This kind of treaty came in to prominence after World Wars when the developed countries wanted to guard their investments in developing countries against expropriation.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multistakeholder governance group for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic community, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006. It was first convened in October–November 2006 and has held an annual meeting since then.
Sustainability reporting refers to the disclosure, whether voluntary, solicited, or required, of non-financial performance information to outsiders of the organization. Sustainability reporting deals with qualitative and quantitative information concerning environmental, social, economic and governance issues. These are the criteria often gathered under the acronym ESG.
ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on social responsibility is an international standard providing guidelines for social responsibility. It was released by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on 1 November 2010 and its goal is to contribute to global sustainable development by encouraging business and other organizations to practice social responsibility to improve their impacts on their workers, their natural environments and their communities.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), established in 1993 by Rehman Sobhan, its Founder chairman, with support from leading civil society institutions in Bangladesh, is mandated by its Deed of Trust to service the growing demand originating from the emerging civil society of Bangladesh for a more participatory and accountable development process. CPD seeks to address this felt-need from the perspectives of marginalised stakeholders, by way of organising multistakeholder consultations, by conducting research on issues of critical national, regional and global interests, through dissemination of knowledge and information on key developmental issues, and by influencing the concerned policy making processes.
The Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) is hosted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Created in 1982 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), its mission is to facilitate investment, development and economic stability by promoting good practices in corporate transparency and accounting.
An international investment agreement (IIA) is a type of treaty between countries that addresses issues relevant to cross-border investments, usually for the purpose of protection, promotion and liberalization of such investments. Most IIAs cover foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment, but some exclude the latter. Countries concluding IIAs commit themselves to adhere to specific standards on the treatment of foreign investments within their territory. IIAs further define procedures for the resolution of disputes should these commitments not be met. The most common types of IIAs are bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and preferential trade and investment agreements (PTIAs). International taxation agreements and double taxation treaties (DTTs) are also considered IIAs, as taxation commonly has an important impact on foreign investment.
Land grabbing is the large-scale acquisition of land through buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals.
The United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP) relate to consumer protection goals. The statement supplied is that the guidelines are "a valuable set of principles for setting out the main characteristics of effective consumer protection legislation, enforcement institutions and redress systems and for assisting interested Member States in formulating and enforcing domestic and regional laws, rules and regulations that are suitable to their own economic and social and environmental circumstances, as well as promoting international enforcement cooperation among Member States and encouraging the sharing of experiences in consumer protection."
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative is a partnership between the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the global financial sector to catalyse action across the financial system to align economies with sustainable development. As the UN partner for the finance sector, they convene financial institutions on a voluntary basis to work together with them, and each other, to find practical solutions to overcome the many sustainability challenges facing the world today. UNEP FI does this by providing practical guidance and tools which support institutions in the finance sector to find ways to reshape their businesses and commit to targets for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, protecting nature, promoting a circular economy and supporting financial inclusion to address inequality. The solutions developed effectively form a blueprint for others in the finance sector to tackle similar challenges and evolve their businesses along a sustainable pathway. The creation and adoption of such a blueprint also informs policy makers concerned with sustainability issues about what would constitute appropriate regulation for the finance sector at large. Founded in 1992, UNEP FI was the first organisation to pioneer engagement with the finance sector around sustainability. The Finance Initiative was responsible for incubating the Principles for Responsible Investment and for the development and implementation of UNEP FI’s Principles for Responsible Banking and Principles for Sustainable Insurance as well as the UN-convened net-zero alliances. Today, UNEP FI provides sustainability leadership to more than 400 financial institutions, with assets of well over $80 trillion headquartered around the world.
Multistakeholder governance is a practice of governance that employs bringing multiple stakeholders together to participate in dialogue, decision making, and implementation of responses to jointly perceived problems. The principle behind such a structure is that if enough input is provided by multiple types of actors involved in a question, the eventual consensual decision gains more legitimacy, and can be more effectively implemented than a traditional state-based response. While the evolution of multistakeholder governance is occurring principally at the international level, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are domestic analogues.
In the United Nations, the Post-2015 Development Agenda was a set of talks and discussion that led to the creation of the 2016 Sustainable Development Goals. This replaced the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.
India's National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business (NVGs) were released by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in July 2011 by Mr. Murli Deora, the former Honourable Minister for Corporate Affairs. The national framework on Business Responsibility is essentially a set of nine principles that offer businesses an Indian understanding and approach to inculcating responsible business conduct.
UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise (DIAE) is a research and policy practice centre of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development whose work focuses on investment and enterprise with a particular view on development. The Division's overarching mandate is to steer sustainable development and inclusive growth objectives through investment and enterprise development, productive capacity-building, industrialization and economic diversification. Its work programme is tailored to serve all UN member States, with a particular emphasis on the needs of least-developed and other structurally weak and vulnerable economies.
The biennial World Investment Forum (WIF) is organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to promote investment for sustainable development and facilitate policy dialogue among a diverse community of investment stakeholders. The forum brings together policymakers, including Heads of State and Government, Ministers and other government officials responsible for investment; representatives from the private sector, including CEOs; international organisations working in the area of sustainable development and poverty reduction; thought leaders from academia and research institutions; and other members of the international investment community, including treaty negotiators, investment promotion and location experts, heads of sovereign wealth funds, heads of stock exchanges, and NGOs.
The Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative promoting corporate investment in sustainable development. It is a project of the United Nations (UN) co-organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) and the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
James X. Zhan has been Director of Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since 2009. He also leads the preparation of the annual World Investment Report.
Sustainable Development Goal 17 is about "partnerships for the goals." One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, the official wording is: "Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development". SDG 17 refers to the need for the nonhegemonic and fair cross sector and cross country collaborations in pursuit of all the goals by the year 2030. It is a call for countries to align policies.
The United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) is an initiative with a steering committee of six United Nations Agencies – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Trade Centre (ITC), UN Environment, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is the secretariat of UNFSS. UNFSS headquarters are in Geneva.
