UNCTAD, in World Investment Report 2025, delivers an urgent warning: productive international investment is shrinking, with the greatest impact on developing countries. This decline is driven by rising uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, increasing trade barriers and heightened scrutiny of foreign capital. At the same time, long-term structural shifts, particularly technological change, are transforming global value chains. Investment in sectors critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is decreasing. Yet opportunities are emerging, particularly in sectors driving the green and digital transitions. In this context, investment and entrepreneurship policies are central and mutually reinforcing tools with which to address these challenges.
Discussions at this round table will explore how such policies can align with sustainable development objectives; highlight strategies to unlock investment, foster enterprise competitiveness and promote scalable solutions and partnerships that direct investment to where it is most urgently needed; and aim to chart a bold, inclusive multi- stakeholder action agenda, reshaping the global investment and entrepreneurship landscape to support sustainable development for all.
Programme
Opening remarks: Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD
Panel 1: Investing in a sustainable future - latest trends and perspectives
Discussions at this panel will examine the latest trends in investment and entrepreneurship for sustainable development; highlight both the risks associated with declining investment flows and the emerging opportunities presented by the green and digital transitions; and explore how policymakers and development stakeholders navigate the current complex investment climate, marked by geopolitical tensions and economic fragmentation, while leveraging new growth areas, to build resilience and inclusive prosperity.
Questions
- What are the emerging trends in international investment and private sector development and their impact on sustainable and inclusive development?
- How are countries addressing emerging risks and opportunities through national and international investment and entrepreneurship policymaking?
- Which policy tools, measures and/or instruments are countries using to foster entrepreneurship and attract investment in critical areas, such as resilient supply chains, the energy transition, the digital economy and transition and other key development sectors?
- How can effective enterprise and investment policies, along with institutional frameworks, be aligned to promote inclusive economic growth and sustainable development?
Panel 2: Towards a multi-stakeholder agenda on investment and entrepreneurship for development
Despite the significant potential of sustainability finance and investment, large parts of the economy remain insufficiently funded. Discussions at this panel will focus on shaping a practical, results-driven, multi-stakeholder agenda that mobilizes investment and entrepreneurship for development’ and highlight successful multi-stakeholder initiatives and replicable approaches in support of equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.
Questions
- What lessons can be drawn from successful global and regional initiatives?
- What role can multi-stakeholder collaboration play in driving investment and entrepreneurship development outcomes?
- Can policymakers and decision makers strengthen international coordination to mobilize cross-border financing in Goals-critical sectors?
- What concrete steps can be taken to build a multi-stakeholder coalition that leverages investment facilitation and promotes joint financing mechanisms at the international level?
Moderator: To be confirmed
Format: Davos-style
Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, became UNCTAD's eighth Secretary-General on 13 September 2021 and is the first woman to lead the organization.
Prior to her UNCTAD appointment, she was the Ibero-American secretary-general from 2014 to 2021, also the first woman to head the organization. During her mandate, she has coordinated the 22-member Iberoamerican Conference and led four key summits of Heads of State and Government.
In 2010 she was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and prior to that was UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Grynspan served as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was also Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Finance. In 2021 she was named Special International Advisor to the newly created Economic and Social Council of Argentina and invited to join as member of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
In addition to her experience as a lecturer and advisor to several international organizations, she has been actively involved in key United Nations initiatives, such as the Millennium Project's Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development and the High-level Panel on Financing for Development.
In 2014 and 2015, she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America. And she was recognized as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America by Forbes magazine.
Ms Grynspan holds a degree in Economics by the University of Costa Rica and a MSc in Economics by the University of Sussex. She has been awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca, the University of Extremadura and the European University of Madrid in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements.
