Sustainability in Global Value Chains

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted global production networks. It has brought to the forefront a sense of urgency for governments and internationally operating enterprises to re-evaluate their approaches towards ensuring resilience and sustainability in their supply chains. This seismic event offers the opportunity to re-think established approaches, and embrace sustainability as a core value creator, but also link long-term recovery strategies to the guiding principles and objectives of the UN Agenda 2030.

In view of the above, the GIGA jointly with the newly created Research Network on Sustainable Supply Chains and UNIDO will host a research conference, taking place on 7 December 2021 which aims to bring together state of the art empirical research to further shed light on the subject of sustainability in global value chains. You will find the conference programme here.

The conference is officially part of UNIDO's annual Forum on Globalization and Industrialization (FGI 2021), scheduled to take place on 6 December 2021.

The Forum on Globalization and Industrialization (FGI) is a series of annual forums jointly organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) and the Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG). For the past few years, the Forum has brought together policymakers, international organizations, academia and private sector. The FGI highlights the areas where stakeholders are already working together, and provides a platform for discovering of new avenues of cooperation on the issues related to industrialization, global trade and investment. In the age of technological and international trade uncertainty, FGI is aiming to address the challenges and opportunities of globalization and industrialization, especially in the current COVID-19 crisis.

The 2021 Forum on Globalization and Industrialization (FGI) seeks to convene stakeholders from government, academia, private sector, and civil society to discuss paths towards advancing sustainability practices in global supply chains. The event aims to discuss the challenges and opportunities of sustainable production in global supply chains. Particularly, the forum will explore policies, governance modes as well as novel business models that can foster inclusiveness and sustainability in global production networks, thus, supporting the joint global efforts to build back better.

Please find the programme of the Forum on Globalization and Industrialization here.

The FGI and the research conference is organized by The Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains jointly with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG). The newly created research network is a joint initiative by the German Development Institute (DIE-GDI) , the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel). The network is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).