Economic and Social Development
Preface
At a time when the world should be deepening cooperation and expanding opportunity we are seeing the opposite.
Acknowledgements
The World Investment Report 2025 was prepared by a team at UNCTAD led by Nan Li Collins.
Foreword
Investment is more than just capital flows and project pipelines.
Explanatory notes
The terms country and economy as used in this report also refer as appropriate to territories or areas.
World Investment Report 2025
International Investment in the Digital Economy
The digital economy is a significant and rapidly expanding part of the global economy. However the benefits of the digital economy are unevenly spread; there is a large digital divide. It is caused by infrastructure gaps skills gaps and services gaps. Bridging these gaps requires significant investment and private sector development. Promoting international investment by digital MNEs can support digital development. UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2017 first looked at the implications of the digital economy for international investment and investment policy. Since that report the relevance of digital-economy foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased significantly. Digital technologies have continued to advance. Investment policies connected to digitalization have also moved on. And importantly the United Nations adopted a new Digital Compact in 2024 with the objective to help developing countries bridge the digital divide. World Investment Report 2025 aims to explore the latest trends of international investment in digital economy analyze the drivers and determinants assess their impact on sustainable development as well as analyze how investment policy can support digital economy and provide relevant policy recommendations.
Trends in international trade
This section illustrates some of the significant trade trends at the global level covering their developments from 2010 to the most recent patterns observed in 2024.
Promoting MSME Development and Entrepreneurship in and around Special Economic Zones in Africa
A Guide for Practitioners
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are an ever-popular policy tool for the promotion of investment employment generation and the stimulation of innovation. Current estimates suggest that there are around 240 SEZs in Africa alone with the total number worldwide passing 5000. While traditionally SEZ policies have focused on the attraction of foreign large-scale industrial investors there has been an increasing interest on how to leverage SEZ policies to support local firms in particular micro small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMES) and foster local entrepreneurship. The importance of MSMEs and entrepreneurship for economic and social outcomes has been extensively documented. In most economies MSMEs represent the vast majority of firms in particular in the developing world. They contribute to the lion share of formal and informal employment and typically grow faster than large established companies. The entry of new firms has been shown to promote productivity and value added. However MSMEs also encounter particular challenges. Among other they face higher hurdles to access finance struggle more with bureaucratic processes and often have lower managerial and technological capabilities. These difficulties make it even more challenging for them to realize market opportunities and their growth potential.
Key Statistics and Trends in International Trade 2024
Trade Growth Amid Volatility and Ongoing Uncertainties
This publication monitors the trends of international trade in goods and services in the medium term. It also provides highlights and summarizes the most significant changes in trade patterns that have occurred during the previous year.
Family-oriented Policies and Programmes in Voluntary National Reviews (2020-2024)
2025 Sahel Humanitarian Needs and Requirements Overview
The Sahel is a region with enormous potential beauty and hope yet which finds itself at the centre of a complex web of interlinked and mutually reinforcing crises each fuelling and exacerbating the other in turn. Across the Sahel there are more than 28 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025 – people who have been forced to flee their homes who are unable to feed their families or provide them with clean water who have lost their livelihoods who lack access to the most basic protection and social services and/or who live in fear of violence. Having lost their homes belongings and livelihoods many people now rely on humanitarian aid to survive. This overview focuses on the six countries with Humanitarian Needs and Response Plans (HNRPs) whose territories or parts thereof constitute the Sahel: Burkina Faso Cameroon (the Far North region) Chad Mali Niger and Nigeria (Adamawa Borno and Yobe states in the country’s north-east).