2024 was a year of transition and renewal for the Division on Investment and Enterprise, marked by the arrival of its new director, Nan Li Collins.
Building on the division’s strong foundations and past achievements, she has brought a clear vision to enhance its impact and relevance in an increasingly complex global environment.
Under her leadership, the division has refined its strategic focus and further strengthened its commitment to delivering concrete results for UNCTAD member states.
4 guiding principles
To drive this ambition, the division is placing special emphasis on four guiding principles that underpin a results-based and collaborative approach to its mandate:
- Collaboration and co-creation: Enhancing coordination within the division, across UNCTAD, and with external partners to address complex, interconnected challenges.
- Communication: Strengthening internal knowledge-sharing and improving how results and lessons are communicated to stakeholders to boost visibility and influence.
- Positioning: Actively engaging in global processes – including the G20, FfD4, and aligning with the UNCTAD Ministerial Conference and other UN Summits and Conference, COP30 and World Investment Forum agendas – to ensure strategic relevance.
- Respect and empowerment: Promoting a culture of mutual respect, inclusion, and empowerment to unlock the full potential of the Division and deepen its commitment to impact-driven service with internal and external stakeholders.
These principles will guide efforts to strengthen impact and maximize effectiveness, respond to the evolving needs of member states, and reinforce the link between research, policy advice and on-the-ground interventions.
Pivotal year
2024 was also a pivotal year for advancing investment and enterprise in support of sustainable development.
In a climate of global uncertainty and shifting economic priorities, the Division launched a landmark World Investment Report (WIR) focused on investment facilitation and digital government.
Its insights powered technical assistance worldwide, helping countries build digital investment single windows and online information portals to make investment processes more transparent, efficient, and accessible.
The report resonated globally, generating 1,895 media articles across 1,229 outlets and attracting over 124,000 downloads.
Its findings shaped policy dialogue on digital transformation in investment governance and were widely cited by policymakers, researchers, and development partners.
The strong uptake underscored both the relevance of the topic, and the continued confidence placed in UNCTAD’s leadership in the investment and enterprise space.