E15 Initiative | About E15

The E15Initiative was established to convene world-class experts and institutions to generate strategic analysis and recommendations for government, business and civil society geared towards strengthening the global trade and investment system for sustainable development.

The past few years have seen the emergence of a complex landscape of bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements, with some “mega-regional agreements” poised to usher in a new order in international economic governance.

In addition, persistent deadlock in the WTO’s Doha Development Round has reduced the global trade system’s ability to respond to new and emerging trade and development challenges, between growing international investment needs and the explosive servicification and digitalisation of the economy, in tandem with policy imperatives around climate action, biodiversity and health of marine life, and food security. It is also crucial for the global trade and investment system to align with the international community’s decisions on the 2030 Agenda and anchored around 17 Sustainable Development Goals, as well as with recent agreements on financing for development and climate change.

In response to the above, ICTSD launched the E15Initiative (E15) in 2011. Since then, ICTSD and the World Economic Forum catalysed a dialogue around the world, bringing together 16 partnering institutions and more than 375 leading international experts in over 80 interactive multi-stakeholder dialogues. The process has stimulated a fresh, strategic look at key challenges and opportunities for the global trade and investment system, and has focused on improving its efficacy, fairness, and inclusiveness as well as its ability to promote sustainable development.

Jointly implemented by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the World Economic Forum, the E15Initiative was established to convene world-class experts and institutions to generate strategic analysis and recommendations for government, business, and civil society geared towards strengthening the global trade and investment system for sustainable development.

In 2018, the initiative will focus on the strategic communication and dissemination of the E15 recommendations in order to influence trade policymaking both in Geneva and in other global centres of decision-making.

ENGAGEMENT, POLICY OUTREACH AND DELIVERY

The E15Initiative (E15) has helped to focus and align the top global experts on trade and investment through a series of more than 80 meetings and in the development of substantive policy options, which serve to provide an open source repository of systemic analysis and options for the future.

The E15Initiative launched a comprehensive set of policy options for the evolution of the global trade and investment system to 2025 at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos 2016.

The E15 delivered:

A Synthesis Report summarising and interpreting the significance of the expert group proposals in relation to eight critical imperatives faced by policymakers, business leaders and society at large. It draws directly from expert group think pieces and policy options papers.
A comprehensive set of policy options for strengthening the global trade and investment system for sustainable development, derived from the proceedings of 14 thematic expert groups and three task forces between 2012 and 2015 (explore the full list of E15 themes).
Summaries of the policy options.

In 2018, ICTSD and the World Economic Forum are focusing on bridging between innovative proposals stemming from the E15Initiative, business demand, societal expectations and governmental realities, to deliver sustainable development. ICTSD and the World Economic Forum will maximise dialogue on the outputs of the E15Initiative in Geneva and in key capitals around the world.

ICTSD is concurrently advancing work under the RTA Exchange, conceived in the context of the E15Initiative and jointly implemented with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The RTA Exchange is a non-profit, non-partisan initiative that works in the interest of mining best practices from regional trade agreements (RTAs) to construct better trade and investment agreements for sustainable development. In 2018-19, the RTA Exchange approach will centre on facilitating multistakeholder dialogue, generating policy-oriented research, and collecting information on RTAs in order to level asymmetries in knowledge and encourage experience sharing in the international trade community.

PARTNERSHIPS

E15 Knowledge Partners include the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC) in Washington; the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); the World Trade Institute (WTI); the Evian [email protected]; Chatham House; the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES); the Swedish National Board of Trade; the National School of Development, Peking University; International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD); Climate Strategies; the Graduate Institute, Geneva; Bruegel; the European University Institute; Center for International Development at Harvard University; and the Southern Voice on Post-MDG International Development Goals. As knowledge partners and co-conveners, these organisations co-managed the work under the expert groups and provide deep expertise on thematic issues.

REPORTS

The E15Initiative Interim Update provides a preliminary overview of the challenges being considered as well as potential responses being detailed and tested. The document is structured into five sections – New Economy, Global Supply Networks, Resources, Sustainable Development, System Reform. – within which the aforementioned fifteen thematic groups and three task forces fall.

The E15 Steering Board provides overall strategic advice and guidance, review progress and makes recommendations for future evolution. Its members currently include:

Jonathan Fried

Coordinator, International Economic Relations, Global Affairs Canada (Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO)

Paul Polman

Chief Executive Office, Unilever

Nils Smedegaard Andersen

Non-Executive Director, BP (Former Group Chief Executive Officer, A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S)

Mark Weinberger

Global Chairman and Chief Executive Office, EY

Ernesto Zedillo

Director, Yale Centre for the Study of Globalization (Former President of Mexico)

Richard Samans

Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board, World Economic Forum

Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz

Chief Executive, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development

E15Initiative Directors are Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, ICTSD, and Richard Samans, World Economic Forum. The E15 is jointly implemented by ICTSD and the World Economic Forum through a joint project team including:

Harsha Vardhana Singh

Senior Associate for Strategic Research and Policy Analysis, ICTSD and former WTO Deputy Director-General, acted as E15 Knowledge Manager to ensure the work product across the groups is of the highest quality.

Marie Chamay

Director of Strategic Initiatives, ICTSD

Emily Bloom

Project Officer, E15Initiative, ICTSD

Fabrice Lehmann

E15 Editor, ICTSD

Rashmi Jose

Senior Programme Officer, Investment and Regulatory Systems, ICTSD

Kate Ziemba (2014-2015)

Junior Programme Officer - Communications, E15Initiative, ICTSD

Sean Doherty

Head of International Trade & Investment, World Economic Forum