On the Brink: a conversation. Rebeca Grynspan & Mariana Mazzucato
Launch of the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Report 2025
On the Brink: a conversation. Rebeca Grynspan & Mariana Mazzucato
02 Dec 2025, 17:30 – 19:00
Date and time: Tuesday 2 December 2025, 17:30 -19:00 (GMT)
Where: UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and online
In-person capacity is limited. If you are unable to join in person, we warmly encourage you to participate online.
About this talk:
On the heels of COP30 in Belém and the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, join us for a critical conversation between two leading economists and practitioners as they examine the interconnected crises reshaping the global economy. Professor Mariana Mazzucato (Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose) and Rebeca Grynspan (Secretary-General of UNCTAD) will discuss the findings of the UN Trade and Development Report 2025, On the Brink: Trade, Finance and the Reshaping of the Global Economy.
Through UCL IIPP’s lens of market shaping, public value and a purpose-oriented economy — and reflecting insights from our recent work presented at COP30 and the G20 — the conversation will explore how trade, industrial policies and finance are increasingly interwoven; why state capacity to govern complex crises must be strengthened; and why the global South faces heightened risks of fragmentation and volatility.
The Trade and Development Report 2025 is under strict embargo until its official launch at UCL. A preview is available here.
Why it matters:
- Trade, industrial policy and finance now operate through tightly interlinked systems, with shocks in one area rapidly propagating through global production networks.
- The global South generates a growing share of global output and trade, yet remains exposed to financial volatility, debt risks and asymmetric governance structures.
- Strengthening state capacity and restoring multilateral cooperation are essential to addressing today’s complex economic, technological and geopolitical challenges.
The full Trade and Development Report 2025 is available here.
Opening remarks:
- Prof. Dame Hazel Genn, Pro-Provost Bicentennial, UCL, President & Provost's Office
Meet the panel:
- Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD
- Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Dame Hazel Genn is a prominent socio-legal scholar at UCL, former Dean, and founder of the Centre for Access to Justice and the UCL Judicial Institute. She has held major roles including Pro-Provost Bicentennial, Commissioner of the Judicial Appointments Commission, and Chair at Queen Mary. A Fellow of the British Academy, she has numerous honours including CBE, DBE, QC (Hon), and multiple honorary doctorates for her work on civil justice.
In September 2021, Rebeca Grynspan was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), becoming the first woman to lead the organization in its 60-year history.
Rebeca Grynspan, an economist and former Vice President of Costa Rica, is an experienced leader of international institutions with a substantive track record in government, UN diplomacy, economic policy and multilateral cooperation at the global level.
Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). Her previous posts include the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University. She is a member of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Italian Academy of Sciences Lincei.
This event is organised by the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (UCL IIPP). Explore more IIPP events here.
Read more about IIPP Conversations 2025-26
Learn more about the IIPP MPA programme
Further information
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