Publications

This is a national companion guide to the publication The Business Guide for Sustainability in Foreign Investments.

International business investors can embed sustainability in each step of their operations. This guide describes the social, environmental and economic practices that international firms must understand when entering a new market.

Literature review of interdependencies between public and private standards. It focuses on how governments could engage with private standards to impact their legitimacy and significance in the market; provides examples of complementarities between public and private standards. Part three of a...

This report shows how sustainability standards can be a powerful tool for post-pandemic recovery.

Standards and regulations have a major impact on SME competitiveness.

The design of governance structure of social and environmental sustainability standards determines how accessible they are to producers in developing countries.The increase in consumer demand for sustainable trade has given rise to a growing array of social and environmental standards. This joint...

Managing risk and building climate resilience among small firms requires a team effort. Climate change is hitting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hard, and supply chain disruptions have a domino effect. This guide explains how development cooperation agencies, business support organizations,...

This report encourages artificial intelligence (AI) literacy for small businesses and trade institutions, especially in developing countries, through the lens of publishing. It shows that AI tools empower everyone in the workplace to be publishers – and that leaders can navigate the promises and...

This is a national companion guide to the publication The Business Guide for Sustainability in Foreign Investments.

This paper aims to guide exporters of agricultural products through the process of product carbon footprinting so as to make it easier for them to understand the processes involved, improve their environmental performance and ultimately to reduce the costs for their business. This paper presents a...

Standards and regulations have a major impact on SME competitiveness.

Understanding the global demand for environmental goods and services can unlock new export opportunities for developing country SMEs. This study provides a market overview of this complex sector, which reached an estimated US$ 866 billion in 2011, and is expected to rise to US$ 1.9 trillion by 2020...