Ms Elisabeth Tuerk is Chief of the Section on International Investment Agreements (IIAs) in UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise (DIAE). She leads the Section's work across the three pillars of UNCTAD activities: research and analysis, capacity-building and consensus-building.
 The IIA Section supports countries in their efforts towards sustainable development-oriented reform of international investment governance. In 2012 the Section developed "UNCTAD's Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development", now available in its 2015 update. The Policy Framework helps policymakers design "new generation" investment policies that place inclusive growth and sustainable development at the heart of efforts to attract and benefit from investment. Since 2015, the Section has developed UNCTAD policy tools for three phases of IIA reform. They are now available in a consolidated 2018 update, entitled “UNCTAD’s Reform Package for the International Investment Regime”. Since 2012, over 150 countries have undertaken ad least one action in the pursuit of sustainable development-oriented IIAs as set out in UNCTAD’s policy tools.
Ms Tuerk conceptualizes the IIA Section's analytical and research work (including the Series on Issues in IIAs (Sequels) and the Series on International Investment Policies for Development, the databases on IIAs ("IIA Navigator"; investor-State dispute settlement “(ISDS) Navigator” and UNCTAD’s “Mapping” of more than 2500 investment treaty texts) and coordinates the Section's contribution to other UNCTAD products, such as the joint UNCTAD/OECD monitoring of G20 countries' investment policy changes and the annual World Investment Report (WIR). Ms Tuerk also leads the Section's technical assistance and capacity-building work and the organization of IIA-related aspects of UNCTAD's intergovernmental events, in particular the biennial World Investment Forum (WIF). With its 60 plus sessions, including key events such as the High-level IIA Conference or Ministerial Roundtables, the most recent WIF attracted more than 6000 participants.