Investment Policy Forum Manila Tool Kit
A practical tool to enhance horizontal coherence across policy areas
Investment governance intersects with international agreements and sectoral policies including on mining, agriculture, and public health. This tool kit helps governments to map and navigate such international commitments for more coherent investment policy-making, building on insights from the 2024 Investment Policy Forum (IPF) in the Philippines.
Key Messages
-
Investment governance is increasingly complex. Policy-makers must navigate between investment-specific and sectoral policies, including on mining, agriculture, environment, labor, and public health.
-
The tool kit supports investment policy-makers in mapping their country's international agreements and commitments and navigating their intersections with investment instruments.
-
Achieving sustainable development requires aligning investment legal instruments—investment treaties, national investment laws, and investment contracts—with states' international commitments.
Policy-makers must navigate an increasingly complex investment governance landscape. Investment instruments intersect with a wide range of international commitments and sectoral policies, such as mining and agriculture, and broader areas, including environmental, labor, and public health regulations. This can lead to regulatory inconsistencies and litigation risks.
Aligning investment treaties, national investment laws, and investment contracts with states’ international commitments across policy areas is critical to achieving sustainable development.
This tool kit assists governments’ internal coordination to improve coherence between investment instruments and other policy areas impacting investment. It is intended to be adaptable—in line with different domestic contexts and priorities—and builds on inputs received from participants at the 2024 edition of IISD's Investment Policy Forum (IPF) in the Philippines as well as foundational work at previous editions of the IPF.
Participating experts
You might also be interested in
Evolving Standards on Stabilization
The publication reviews the evolution of stabilization clauses in mining contracts, highlighting the 2020 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guiding Principles and offering guidance on its implementation toward a reduced use of stabilization clauses, and alternative approaches.
Why the Energy Charter Treaty Modernization Doesn't Deliver for Climate
The Energy Charter Conference adopted the "modernized" Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) on December 3, 2024. IISD's Lukas Schaugg explains what the modernization does, when it will enter into force, its tension with EU law, and why the reformed ECT can still hinder climate policies.
The Responsible Agricultural Investment Tool for Agribusiness and Case Studies
This report summarizes a collaboration to support agribusinesses in complying with principles of responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.
Stabilization Clauses: The hidden provisions that can hinder tax and investment policy reform
Stabilization clauses should no longer automatically be included in contracts between states and investors. If they are, they should, at a minimum, build on the latest international standards on stabilization to avoid being a barrier to sustainable development.