The 2002 United Nations Monterrey Consensus ascribes critical importance to mobilising private investment, both domestic and foreign, for achieving the development objectives of the Millennium Declaration.

The OECD Initiative on Investment for Development supports developing countries' sustained efforts to attract and generate more and better investment. Proposed at the OECD Ministerial in May 2003, the Initiative was launched by the OECD Investment Committee in Johannesburg in November 2003 at the OECD Global Forum on International Investment.

The Initiative has three closely inter-related components:
•  the development and use of the Policy Framework for Investment;
•  co-operation with non-members for building investment policy capacity, taking advantage of OECD peer learning methods;
•  the development and use of Policy Guidance for Donors on Using ODA to Promote Private Investment for Development.