UNCTAD16 in Geneva – Day 04.

Oct 2025 : The 16th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD16), held from 20th to 23rd October in Geneva, Switzerland, concluded with the adoption of the Geneva Consensus and a political declaration.

The conference have culminated against a complex global backdrop, as the agreed document underlines a context of subdued economic growth, persistent inequalities within and among countries.

Economies, particularly the most vulnerable, struggle with compounding challenges, including increasing challenges to trade, limited fiscal space, weak investment levels, unsustainable debt burdens, digital divides and fragile productive capacities. Yet the 195 UNCTAD member states have demonstrated renewed unity and purpose

Themed, “Shaping the future: Driving economic transformation for equitable, inclusive and sustainable development”, UNCTAD16 renewed multilateral efforts to place development back at the heart of the global economic debate.

Over four days, more than 170 national delegations, 80 ministers and vice ministers of trade and economy from all regions gathered in Geneva. This is historically the highest participation of member states in an UNCTAD conference. Across more than 40 high-level sessions and 24 expert panels, participants examined practical pathways to strengthen trade, finance, productive capacities, commodities, the Global System of Trade Preferences, finance and debt, artificial intelligence, the digital economy, investment, supply chains and regionalism. Additionally, there were meetings of ministers of the Group of 77 and China, Africa, least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states and landlocked developing countries.  

“This is a conference of renewal – renewal of UNCTAD’s mandate, renewal of your commitment, renewal of our shared purpose”, underlined Secretary-General Grynspan.

The Geneva Consensus charts UNCTAD’s path forward with strong support for the organization as well as concrete mandates that lay out a clear and actionable roadmap for the organisation in the years ahead.

UNCTAD16 has delivered an agreement by all 195 member states called “The Geneva Consensus for a Just and Sustainable Economic Order”. This declaration reaffirms the fundamental belief that development must leave no one behind and commits to building a more inclusive global economy and it underlines:

• On trade, countries reaffirmed the centrality of a rules-based, open, transparent and equitable multilateral trading system, and recognised that quality trade in services is the new frontier for development.

• On investment, the conference addressed the decline and uneven distribution of global investment flows, investment facilitation measures, policy frameworks that lower the cost of capital, and support to domestic and international ecosystems that can multiply foreign investment.

• On the digital economy, technological advances are creating opportunities and divides, and countries called for UNCTAD to support developing countries with skills, infrastructure and frameworks to harness the digital economy.

• On debt and financing for development, following the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), member states agreed the establishment of a Borrowers’ Forum, which is a new space for developing countries to build collective capacity, share experiences and strengthen their voice in global debt discussions.

• On support for least developed countries, member states committed to strengthen their support, including through a dedicated graduation support programme. They called for tailored support for small island developing states facing climate disasters and soaring transport costs. And for landlocked developing, they committed to continuing work on trade facilitation and transit corridors. Additionally, during UNCTAD16, the launch of the Sevilla Forum on Debt was announced, which is a breakthrough platform to open the dialogue to support developing countries in tackling the challenges arising out of sovereign debt.

During the course of UNCTAD16, participating countries agreed to support key UNCTAD work for the coming year, such as:

• Trade and supply chains: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confirmed it will host the 2nd UN Global Supply Chain Forum November 2026, in partnership with the Saudi Ports Authority (MAWANI). UNCTAD leads this new initiative to make global supply chains more resilient, efficient and sustainable by addressing issues such as critical infrastructure, digital trade systems, financing for small businesses and workforce training.

• Digital economy: The Government of Switzerland announced new funding of 4 million Swiss francs to bolster UNCTAD’s work on e-commerce and the digital economy for developing economies. Also, UNCTAD signed an agreement with the Digital Cooperation Organization to work on digital economy data and measurement, and on empowering women in the digital economy and providing support to startups and small and medium-sized enterprises.

• Investment: Qatar confirmed it will host the 9th World Investment Forum (WIF) in 2026. The flagship UN platform will scale solutions and partnerships to power sustainable investment globally, ensuring that finance fosters inclusive growth and shared prosperity.

At the closing of the conference, Secretary-Grynspan Grynspan welcomed the agreement reached in the Geneva Consensus and underlined the political significance of the agreement, saying: “This is what multilateralism looks like – not perfect, not easy, but possible. Always possible”.

Full Statement of Secretary General Rebeca Grynspan –

We have been here until this late hour negotiating, discussing – because it matters. Because what we are discussing matters for our countries and for our people’s lives. And because it matters, we did not give up. You did not give up. So, we did it. We have an agreed outcome document.

We have reached the end of an extraordinary week, with a historic attendance of 170 delegations – a record high for any UNCTAD conference. So now, I want to say thank you.

Thank you, first of all, to Switzerland, this extraordinary country that has hosted the world’s conversations for generations. Thank you for guiding this conference, for opening – just in time – the doors to this unbeatable venue that is the Palais des Nations. Merci.

Thank you to every single delegate in this room. To those who stayed until now, and before, until midnight and then showed up again at 6 AM to continue, thank you for debating, for negotiating, for finding common ground.

To Paul Bekkers, to the groups’ coordinators, to the Friends of the Chair, you turned competing visions into consensus. That is the art of diplomacy at its finest. Ambassador Bekkers will be leaving us next week. We will miss you very much. We are happy for you, but we are sad for ourselves.

And lastly, I want to thank my staff. Thank you for being so engaged, so motivated, so stressed. Your emotion showed just how much this conference matters, just how high the stakes are. Thank you for being so capable, so committed, so wonderful.

Excellencies, these rooms housed the League of Nations in its final years and housed the United Nations as it rose from those ashes.

For me, at least, this place carries the weight of that history, not as a burden, but as proof that systems can be rebuilt, that the architecture of cooperation can be constructed and reformed, again and again. And that is exactly what we have been doing, not only in these four days but in the last four years that led us to here. This is a conference of renewal, renewal of UNCTAD’s mandate, renewal of your commitment, renewal of our shared purpose.

Since 2021, we set out to renew this organisation to make it relevant, impactful, essential again. We wanted to put UNCTAD back where it belongs, at the heart of the development conversation, at the table where decisions are made, in the field where change happens. This conference is the culmination of that work. The outcome document you adopted gives us clear direction. The Geneva Consensus reaffirms why we are who we are. Together, they say: UNCTAD matters. UNCTAD delivers. UNCTAD must continue.

This renewal is not abstract. It’s concrete. It’s every commitment you made this week and engraved in the outcome document. On trade, you made a statement that matters profoundly in this moment. You reaffirmed the centrality of a rules-based, open, transparent and equitable multilateral trading system.

Each of the letters and adjectives in that sentence matter a great deal in a time like this – and they deserve your applause.

But you also looked ahead. You recognised that quality services trade represents a new frontier for structural transformation, and you committed to policies that help countries move away from commodity dependence and into value addition. On investment, you addressed head-on the challenge of declining flows and uneven distribution. You instructed UNCTAD to help domestic and international ecosystems to attract productive investment, through investment facilitation, through policy frameworks that reduce capital costs.

On the digital economy, you confronted the reality that technological advances are creating new opportunities and new divides at the same time. You called for UNCTAD to scale up support to member states to build digital infrastructure, skills development and domestic and international frameworks that help countries harness the digital economy.

On debt and financing for development, you supported the establishment of a borrowers’ forum – creating a space for developing countries to build collective capacity, share knowledge and experience, and strengthen their voice.

On climate and environment, you recognized that developing countries should not have to choose between economic growth and environmental sustainability. You highlighted the importance of climate finance.

On support for LDCs, you committed to strengthening support, including through a dedicated graduation support programme.

For SIDS facing climate disasters and soaring transport costs, you called for tailored support.

For LLDCs, you committed to continue work on trade facilitation and transit corridors.

For African countries, for middle-income countries, for all those whose challenges cannot be addressed by one-size-fits-all solutions, you insisted on support that matches specific realities.

And you committed to revitalise UNCTAD’s intergovernmental machinery to ensure it remains fit for purpose. We take very seriously the delivery of these commitments and will mobilize all our existing and available resources to achieve them.

But we must not ignore the fact that we meet in extraordinary times – in the context of the UN80 reform and the proposed 20% post reduction. This means that this organization will need the flexibility and time to assess and map the final requirements from this outcome document. Once the UN80 process has run its course, my intention is to present any resource-requirement proposals in the framework of the 2028 programme budget for the consideration of member states.

Excellencies,

Before I close this conference, allow me to share one final reflection; Today, multilateralism faces two tests: the test of trust and the test of hope. A test of trust, because we need weeks like this to remember how much we can agree on. But the biggest test we face is the test of hope. When the UN was created 80 years ago, we didn’t have growth. We did not have trust. But we had hope — and it is hope that has built everything we have today.

But hope is something you choose, not because circumstances warrant it, but because hope does not depend on circumstances, it depends on will. In 1964, when UNCTAD was created, developing countries had every reason for despair, but they chose hope and built UNCTAD. This week, you made that choice again.

You could have chosen differently, but you chose hope, to shape the future rather than surrender to it.

That choice, which is your choice is what made this week extraordinary. This is what multilateralism looks like, although not perfect, not easy, but possible. Always possible.

Team Maverick