A new report by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) outlines key strategies to accelerate the reform of international investment agreements (IIAs), aiming to align them more closely with sustainable development goals.

The report draws on insights from the UNCTAD Multi-stakeholder Platform on IIA Reform (IIA Reform Platform), an inclusive forum for informal expert-level deliberations launched at the UNCTAD High-level IIA Conference in 2023. The IIA Reform Platform convened experts from governments, international organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector for two meetings in 2024. Participants discussed inhibitors and accelerators of IIA reform, and explored trends of substantive convergence and divergence in ongoing IIA reform efforts.

While reform progress is visible in new-generation treaties that increasingly include sustainable development-oriented considerations, reform efforts continue to face obstacles. Reform has not yet reached the 2,200 IIAs in force today which were negotiated before 2010 and reflect the policy priorities of a bygone era.

The report identifies four key barriers that slow down the progress of updating IIA networks: capacity and resource constraints, concerns about adverse signalling, limited political buy-in, and reform fatigue (figure 1).

To overcome these obstacles, Platform participants identified a set of strategies, including:

• Demand-driven capacity-building initiatives
• Enhanced dissemination of reform knowledge
• Reframing treaty reform as an upgrade that aims to increase sustainable investment flows
• Strengthening regional forums

Substantively, the discussions found convergence around four reform areas:

• Safeguarding the right to regulate while providing refined investor protections
• Promoting and facilitating investment
• Embedding investor obligations and responsibilities
• Reforming investor–State dispute settlement mechanisms

A common theme that transpired throughout the discussions was the need for additional consensus-building and IIA reform guidance to help countries advance IIA reform. This need was echoed at UNCTAD’s High-level IIA Conference in December 2024. Following the call from stakeholders, UNCTAD is in the process of developing Guiding Principles on IIA Reform. The principles will build on the leading role of UNCTAD as the convening forum on IIA reform over the past decade, on the basis of which consensus emerged on the need to reform the international investment regime. The overarching goal is to embed sustainable development at the core of the international investment regime, covering all practical steps in the reform process. The principles will support countries in developing an IIA reform strategy, in designing and negotiating reformed IIAs and in operationalizing new-generation IIAs for maximum impact.

The full report is available for download on UNCTAD’s website.