Introduction to the ToolkitOFDI Policy Toolkit for Sustainable Development
Welcome to the Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) Policy Toolkit for Sustainable Development.
The Toolkit has three primary purposes:
- It is a source of key information and policy advice on home-country effects, i.e., the impact OFDI can have on home countries and their sustainable development, and on corresponding home-country measures (HCMs), i.e., policies, measures, regulations and institutional adjustments to regulate, manage and encourage OFDI.
- It is a repository of knowledge and data, establishing the current state of scientific knowledge on home-country effects and identifying common practices among home-country governments in the use of HCMs.
- It offers a variety of analytical tools on home-country effects and HCMs, for example evaluating combinations of home-country effects and -measures to identify arrangements that could maximise the sustainable development outcomes of OFDI.
The Toolkit has been developed for policymakers, government officials, international organisations, companies, analysts, researchers and other stakeholders with an interest in OFDI, its effects and associated policies and measures. It can be used to inform government policy, international cooperation, technical assistance, capacity building and ongoing research on OFDI. Furthermore, the Toolkit can contribute to aligning the operations of multinational enterprises with sustainable development priorities of both home and host countries.
The Toolkit is publicly available on this website and is regularly updated with the latest empirical evidence on home-country effects and existing home-country measures. An abridged “highlights” version has also been published in hard copy.
The Toolkit was peer-reviewed prior to its initial publication and undergoes continuous improvements following regular processes of consultations, feedback and validation through this website and the regular exchanges and discussions the Toolkit developers have with policymakers, government officials, international organisations, business leaders, researchers and other stakeholders.
The Toolkit is a collaborative project between Jan Knoerich at King’s College London (KCL), Matthew Stephenson at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Heather Taylor-Strauss at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). It received generous funding support by the UK Economic and Social Research Council under the grant reference number ES/T501931/1.
Valuable advice on conceptualisation and development of the Toolkit was provided by Mia Mikic (UNESCAP), Yann Duval (UNESCAP), Marc Proksch (UNESCAP), Tientip Subhanij (UNESCAP), Karl P. Sauvant (Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment), and Yundan Gong (KCL).
Research assistance was provided by Daniel Benson, Edgard Carneiro Vieira, James Kingsbury and Mengchen Suo. Production of the Toolkit was supported by Natthika Charoenphon.
The online Toolkit was created by Verge [ ]
The development of the Toolkit benefited from the valuable feedback provided by the participants of an Expert Group Meeting organized by UNESCAP on 1 July 2021 and through written comments submitted by experts in July 2021. We would, in particular, like to thank [ ] and Douglas van den Berghe (CEO SeZNext), Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra (Northwestern University), Nigel Driffield (University of Warwick), Sandrine Dodard (UNCTAD), Maximilian Eltgen, Axele Giroud (University of Manchester), Zbigniew Głuchowski (CBI), Marta Götz (Vistula University), Natalia Guerra (UNCTAD), Armando Heilbron, Guoyong Liang (UNCTAD), Michael Lim Jr (Crowe Growth Consulting), Anuj Mathew (UK DIT), Ben Morrison (UK DIT), Ahmed Omic (WAIPA), Sebastian Reil (FDI Center), Aba Schubert (Dorae), Hanna Tatarchenko Welgacz (Apex-Brasil), Stephen Thomson (OECD), Pheobe Tuckett (UKDIT), Paul Wessendorp (UNCTAD), for their precious feedback. In the future, continuous feedback will be sought regularly, from users of the Toolkit, aimed at improving it further.
Contact information of the Toolkit creators:
Dr Jan Knoerich, KCL: jan.knoerich@kcl.ac.uk
Dr Matthew Stephenson, WEF: mste@weforum.org
Dr Heather Taylor-Strauss, UNESCAP: taylor21@un.org