WSSD ROUNDTABLE: TRADE AND INVESTMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
 Abuja, Nigeria, 18-19 July 2002

  Description

The World Summit on Sustainable Development focused the world's attention on and direct action toward meeting the difficult challenges facing our planet. Primarily, the Summit focused on improving people's lives and conserving our natural resources in a world that is growing in population, with ever-increasing demands for food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services and economic security. It is increasingly recognised that to achieve economic growth and sustainable development (i.e., policies and practices that are economically, socially and ecologically sustainable) in a globalizing world of ever changing circumstances will require increased solidarity and strengthened cooperation among governments, the private sector, and civil society.

The WSSD Roundtable “Trade and Investment for Sustainable Development: Essential Principles and Practices” was organised by ICTSD in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Nigerian Ministry of Commerce, the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNESA) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Abuja, Nigeria, on 18-19 July 2002 in an effort to promote a better understanding of trade-investment-environment linkages, provide useful inputs into the WSSD process, and explore new and innovative forms of cooperation between key stakeholder. By bringing together key stakeholders, the Roundtable encouraged a frank exchange of views around some of the main issues that illustrate the challenges of balancing social, economic and environmental concerns that underline the link between trade and investment for sustainable development. To strengthen the dialogue among the participants, the RT agenda and format were revised to facilitate group discussions over the two-day period.