Multi-year Expert Meeting on Investment, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Productive Capacity-building and Sustainable Development, fifth session

The Meeting will form a continuation of the pre-Nairobi, multi-year expert meetings on related issues. Its fifth session will take stock of the sustainable-development-oriented reform of the international investment agreement regime to date, as well as policy options for the next phase of the reform.

Main issues for the session

Based on policy instruments previously developed by UNCTAD, in particular the Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development, road map for reform of the international investment agreement regime and global action menu for investment facilitation, the meeting will take stock of sustainable-development-oriented reform of the regime, which manifests itself in new, more modern models and treaties (phase 1 of the reform).

The meeting will also consider phase 2 of the reform, the modernization of first-generation treaties. To that end, it will share best practices and lessons learned and discuss initiatives and policy tools, including 10 options proposed by UNCTAD for phase 2. The legislative mandate is provided by paragraphs 38 (l), 55 (q), 55 (r) and 55 (hh) of the Nairobi Maafikiano, as well as by paragraph 91 of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

The outcome of the Expert Meeting, the Chair's summary, will serve as an input to the policy deliberations of the ninth session of the Commission on Investment, Enterprise and Development that will be held from 20 to 24 November 2017.

Experts will be requested to elaborate on, and add to, these key issue areas identified by the secretariat. They will share experiences and best practices with regard to the implementation of UNCTAD policy tools related to international investment agreements.

Contributions from Experts

Experts are encouraged to contribute brief papers on the subject under discussion. These papers will be made available at the meeting in the form and language in which they are received.