UNCTAD's Multi-stakeholder Platform on IIA Reform was launched at the UNCTAD High-level IIA Conference in 2023 as an inclusive forum for informal expert-level deliberations on ways to fast-track the reform of international investment agreements (IIAs).
Participants from governments, international organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector convened for two meetings in 2024 to discuss inhibitors and accelerators of IIA reform, and explore trends of substantive convergence and divergence in ongoing IIA reform efforts.
Participants identified four barriers to IIA reform and opportunities to overcome them. Capacity and resource constraints, concerns regarding adverse signalling, limited political buy-in, and reform fatigue slow down the progress of updating IIA networks.
Key strategies to overcome barriers and unlock reform include providing demand-driven capacity-building, disseminating knowledge, reframing treaty reform as an upgrade that aims to increase sustainable investment flows, and strengthening regional forums.
New-generation treaties converge around sustainable development-oriented reform.
Treaty reform shows in four substantive areas in recent IIAs:
- Safeguarding the right to regulate, while providing refined protections.
- Strengthening the investment facilitation and promotion dimension of IIAs.
- Including investor obligations and responsible investment clauses.
- Reforming investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms.
Overall convergence on shared reform goals, coupled with country-specific and regional divergence, offers a promising path forward.
The shared objective to align investment governance with sustainable development is a strong driver for moving reform efforts towards greater convergence.
A degree of divergence appears between countries and regions when negotiating and selecting concrete drafting choices in IIAs.
UNCTAD is in the process of developing Guiding Principles on IIA Reform.
Following a call from stakeholders at the High-level IIA Conference 2024, the Principles will build on UNCTAD's existing policy instruments and reform expertise, and incorporate lessons from a decade of reform action.
They aim to provide a framework that guides policymakers and inspires reform action to embed sustainable development at the core of the international investment regime.