Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, is experiencing severe impacts of climate change: increasingly extreme rainfall and flooding events, coupled with prolonged droughts. The result is the complete devastation of agriculture, with 46% of the country's arable land now degraded. Year on year, 105,000 to 250,000 hectares of land degrades, threatening food security, health, and rural communities' well-being.

These challenges have also displaced many Burkinabè, especially as 80% of the population relies on agriculture. Displacement rates have surged by over 7,000% since 2018, making Burkina Faso one of the fastest-growing displacement regions globally.

In response, Burkina Faso's Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance, supported by the NDC Partnership, are proposing a land restoration project using nature-based infrastructure (NBI). Targeting the Sahel, Boucle du Mouhoun, Eastern, and Cascades regions, the project aims to regenerate 37% of the country's land, benefiting over 26,000 households and indirectly aiding over 600,000 individuals. The initiative also focuses on gender-responsive NBI, supporting nearly 8,000 women.

Using spatial analysis, climate data, Excel-based modelling, and financial analysis, this integrated cost-benefit analysis demonstrates the massive potential of NBI to restore land and combat desertification, promote sustainable agricultural practices, and reduce climate-related displacement, overall aiding communities with climate change adaptation.

We found that

1. The nature-based and hybrid interventions perform better than the grey infrastructure alternative, while delivering further socio-economic benefits. For every USD 1 invested, NBI delivers USD 14.8 in benefits.
2. NBI increases carbon storage, helping with climate change mitigation, generating an avoided cost of USD 28.1 million, and offering potential financing opportunities through carbon credits.
3. NBI avoids the displacement of people from their homes, increases stability, and reduces the potential for conflicts and violence through reliable income sources and food security.
4. The implementation of the NBI can be replicated, scaling across Burkina Faso and beyond, to effectively combat droughts and desertification and sustain rural livelihoods.

Natural infrastructure is a cost-effective solution to meeting many of our infrastructure needs, particularly those related to water, such as the provision of clean drinking water, flood protection, stormwater management, and climate change adaptation. Natural infrastructure encompasses preserved, restored, and engineered ecosystems, and it harnesses the power of nature to support human well-being through ecosystem services.

Mobilizing capital for natural infrastructure projects is critical for their wider implementation. Historically, public funding from government agencies—such as funds dedicated to support restoration or agricultural best management practices—has been the largest source of capital for natural infrastructure. Nevertheless, commercial financing and private investments are emerging as promising sources of capital for natural infrastructure projects.

This report showcases how private capital can help finance natural infrastructure to meet our water needs, the factors that go into financing decisions, and the benefits from the investments.

This publication shares top takeaways from the Advancing Natural Infrastructure Forum 2024, as well as a brief overview of the discussions and presentations. With top takeaways, quotes and resources from sessions, and a section on looking forward to next steps—this report gives a full summary of the forum.

A recap of the event, photos, and resources can also be found at our Advancing Natural Infrastructure 2024 Forum Recap and Resources page.

It was a notable 2023 for the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), which included some standout achievements and important work with IGF member countries.

2023 Highlights

• Updating the Mining Policy Framework, the Secretariat's cornerstone publication and the basis for our work with governments
• Welcoming two new members, bringing the IGF's total membership to 82 countries
• Hosting our 19th Annual General Meeting on the theme of Sharing Mining Benefits in the Energy Transition
• Delivering 16+ workshops, webinars, and trainings for 900+ participants
• Launching a global report on Women and the Mine of the Future—one of 25 publications released in 2023
• Co-hosting a Global Conference on the Future of Resource Taxation in Lusaka, Zambia
• Electing a new executive committee, including new members from Peru, Sweden, and the United States

Ethiopia has made progress in expanding its comprehensive wealth despite social, economic, and environmental challenges. The stock of real comprehensive wealth per capita doubled over the study period of 1995 to 2020, growing annually at 3%. Human capital—which represents between 50% and 65% of total wealth—was the main driver.

However, recent years have seen a reversal of this generally positive trend, with comprehensive wealth declining in real per capita terms in 2018/19 and 2019/20. On top of this, indicators of land use, temperature, and precipitation all point to growing pressures on ecosystems and climate. If nothing is done to reverse these trends, Ethiopia’s future prosperity will be compromised.

Through shifting the examination of Ethiopia’s economic performance beyond GDP to how it manages its wealth assets, this report provides clear policy recommendations for how Ethiopian leaders could try to grow the country’s stocks of assets and reduce the pressure from an increasing population.

For decades, GDP has been the primary metric policy-makers, business leaders, news reporters, and the wider public have used to judge how well a country is doing. GDP is rising? The country must be thriving.

However, this tight focus on GDP growth can lead decision-makers to favour policies with short-term economic benefits, even if they undermine well-being in the long run. It ignores the costs of economic activities on nature, society, and the well-being of future generations.

Comprehensive wealth measures the assets that form the basis of income. By gauging changes in a country's produced, natural, human, financial, and social capital—its comprehensive wealth portfolio—stakeholders have an opportunity to preview if GDP performance is sustainable in the long term.

Using metrics never before employed in Trinidad and Tobago—though drawn from local data sources—this report highlights the risks associated with overreliance on non-renewable resources like oil and gas for development. The growth of the country’s fossil fuel sector has led to excessive investment in the petroleum industry and, therefore, skewing too much of its wealth—human, produced, natural, and financial—in that direction. Investment in non-oil sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, has received too little attention as a result.

Trinidadians and Tobagonians are not fully clear about this story and its consequences for their country’s long-term well-being because the news they receive focuses on GDP performance. While GDP performance has not painted a rosy picture in recent years, the deep and structural issues that threaten the nation's long-term well-being only become apparent through an analysis of comprehensive wealth.

Comprehensive wealth comprises five types of assets: produced capital, human capital, natural capital, financial capital, and social capital. Measuring the size of this portfolio provides a fuller understanding of Indonesia’s development achievements and prospects, reflecting the diverse assets that contribute to its economic and social well-being.

The study reveals that over a 25-year period, Indonesia’s Comprehensive Wealth Index (the inflation-adjusted per capita value of its comprehensive wealth portfolio) nearly tripled, increasing from IDR 404.3 million (USD 86,100) in 1995 to IDR 1.13 million (USD 240,750) in 2020. However, this growth has been uneven across different types of capital.

In contrast, Indonesia’s GDP grew considerably more slowly. In real per capita terms, Indonesia’s GDP grew from IDR 27.5 million (USD 5,860) to IDR 54.1 million (USD 11,500). The relatively slow growth of Indonesia’s real per capita GDP compared with its CWI suggests that the country is not benefiting as much from its increased wealth as it should.

Largely through leveraging national data sources, the authors explore how Indonesia could be “leaving money on the table” and provide a window into the possibilities for the country if it were to better manage its assets.

There is a growing agreement among global leaders that countries must move beyond GDP as their primary measure of progress. A new IISD report developed with academic partners in Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago shows how “comprehensive wealth” can complement GDP while measuring what matters most to people and the planet.

Comprehensive wealth focuses on the portfolio of assets that make income possible: natural, human, social, produced, and financial capital. As a means of moving beyond GDP, comprehensive wealth has much to offer. Like GDP, it is concise. Just a few high-level indicators can measure a country’s comprehensive wealth portfolio. It is also robust, resting on theory and practice stretching back more than a century. Finally, it is relevant to well-being across all its dimensions—economic, social, and environmental.

This report compiles comprehensive wealth data from 1995–2020 primarily using national data sources for three countries at differing levels of development—Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago—and reveals insights into their development paths. Regrettably, none of these insights are obvious when GDP is the primary gauge of national success.

The authors argue that the citizens of these countries—indeed, of all countries—would be better off if their governments compiled comprehensive wealth measures and used them, alongside GDP, to guide decision making. This would help ensure a greater focus on ensuring long-term well-being.

This practical guide provides a series of questions that may guide governments when considering the design of strategic policies and roadmaps with respect to the minerals and metals they produce and/or need for resilient industrial supply chains.

This publication is designed to support governments in defining what should be considered as “strategic” or “critical” based on a series of objective criteria, such as their mineral endowments, their national development objectives and priorities, their decarbonization and industrialization pathways, and their importance (and role) in global supply chains.

If we were building the investment treaty regime from scratch today, what policy problems should the regime seek to solve, and how should it contribute to solving them?

The answer to this core question points to existing problems of international investment governance; issues where cooperation between states is both desirable and necessary.

This report divides investment governance policy problems into three categories: (a) issues related to the encouragement and support of sustainable investment, (b) issues related to the impacts of investment projects, and (c) issues of investment governance, institutions, and international cooperation. For each category, the paper assesses whether a treaty could play a useful role and highlights questions that require further consideration, investigation, and clarification.

Rethinking Investment Treaties is a step toward designing future investment treaties and a must-read for policy-makers responding to the most pressing economic, environmental, and social policy problems of the 21st century.

The report authors and leading experts from international institutions and academia unpacked the report's key findings and policy guidance in a webinar on May 30, 2024. Since then, IISD has advanced the conversation through bespoke sessions at the 2024 Investment Policy Forum and government workshops.

In June 2025, we launched a public consultation on the rethinking of investment treaties, seeking input on policy priorities and design from policy-makers, investors, experts, academics, and other members of the investment community.

We published the findings from the consultation in a summary report in March 2026. The consultation suggests that investment treaties should be redesigned to focus more on ensuring investments deliver genuine public goods—which is not the case with the current model focused on shielding foreign investors—and to better interact with national laws for settling disputes between investors and states.