A year of pressure and purpose: UNCTAD’s 2025 story

Orisemeke Benjamin

The year 2025 was a defining one for UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It was the year of its sixteenth ministerial-level conference—the first held in Geneva since its founding in 1964—and the year member States adopted the Geneva Consensus, a renewed road map for its work at a time of extraordinary global change.

But 2025 was also a year of widespread shocks. Tariff volatility reshaped world trade. Investment flows to developing countries weakened. Debt burdens grew heavier. Aid flows declined. For the most vulnerable economies—the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States—these pressures compounded one another, making the path to structural transformation steeper than ever.

Shocks and responses

Each of these shocks demanded a response across UNCTAD’s three pillars of work: in its research and analysis, in its intergovernmental consensus-building, and, on the ground, in its technical cooperation.

UNCTAD itself operated under significant resource constraints throughout the year. Budget reductions led to the abolition of posts, and liquidity pressures across the United Nations Secretariat forced difficult choices about what it could deliver and when. Some projects were scaled back. Some meetings were shortened. Some publications were postponed.

And yet, this was also a year that showed what UNCTAD could do under pressure. When tariff announcements began altering the landscape of global trade, UNCTAD did not wait for the dust to settle. It launched rapid assessments to give member States real-time analysis of what the shifts meant for their exporters, their farmers, their small businesses. It brought evidence to the table when policymakers needed it most. Its technical cooperation programmes, from customs modernization and debt management to entrepreneurship networks and digital trade readiness, continued to deliver results in over 100 countries and territories.

The Geneva consensus

The centrepiece of the year was UNCTAD’s quadrennial conference, the sixteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. In October 2025, member States came together in Geneva and adopted the Geneva Consensus, a comprehensive outcome that reaffirmed the role of UNCTAD as the development arm of the United Nations system and set clear priorities for the years ahead.

In the Consensus, member States called on UNCTAD to deepen its support for electronic commerce and the digital economy, to strengthen its assistance for countries approaching graduation from least developed country status, and to sharpen its engagement with landlocked developing countries and small island developing States. They recognized the growing importance of services trade as a frontier for structural transformation, and the urgency of addressing critical minerals governance, illicit financial flows, and developing-country representation in the international financial architecture.

A record year for trade—with uneven gains

Even amid these headwinds, global trade in goods and services surpassed $35 trillion in 2025—a new all-time high. Goods made up roughly three-quarters of the total, while services accounted for the remainder. Goods trade grew by about 6.5 percent and drove most of the increase, while services grew faster, at almost 9 percent, continuing a long-term trend.

After two years of decline, globalization strengthened in 2025, with the trade-to-GDP ratio rising again. Developing economies recorded around 5 percent growth in exports and imports, but developed economies still dominated overall trade, with 54 percent of global exports and 58 percent of global imports.

Trade between developing economies—known as South–South trade—expanded by around 8 percent over the last four quarters, showing growing resilience across developing regions. East Asia’s exports recorded the strongest growth over the past four quarters at 9 percent, with intra-regional trade growing by 10 percent.

The road ahead

This annual report documents what UNCTAD accomplished throughout that demanding year. The pages cover each dimension of its work, from the flagship publications that shaped policy debates, to the intergovernmental processes that built consensus, to the technical cooperation that translated mandates into tangible support for developing countries.

The year ahead will bring no less complexity. But the Geneva Consensus gives UNCTAD a clear mandate, and the work documented in these pages shows an institution that delivers, even under pressure. UNCTAD was built for moments like this. It will continue to rise to them.