High prices and concerns about energy security in the oil and gas industry are driving expansion into ever more sensitive environments with greater technoological, political and social risks.

This book brings together a series of papers identifying opportunities for Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) to attract Foreign direct investment (FDI) that is associated with positive contributions to sustainable development and good corporate social responsibility practices. It points to a number of opportunities for IPAs in attracting FDI with good CSR practices and highlights key leverage points and practical tools to achieve this. It is intended to provide a primer for investment promotion agencies and pointers for approaches that could be deployed in the future.

This paper reports on the multilateral trade and investment context for biofuels. It briefly introduces the context surrounding biofuels and delves into some of the factors driving the rapid expansion in production and use. The analysis looks at trade and investment issues for biofuels, and some of the issues on developing standards. This discussion paper concludes with proposals for how governments, particularly small and medium-sized economies, might develop appropriate trade and investment rules to support a fair and sustainable biofuels sector.

This study surveys a thriving, albeit largely informal, SMFE sector in Malawi. It looks in detail at four promising subsectors: timber, cane furniture, tree fruit juices and woodcarving.