Register Here
ICSID's Investment Mediation Insights webinar, which debuted in 2021, returned in 2025 with a new installment of practical insights into the growing field of mediation between States and investors.
This episode will highlight concepts and approaches to investment conflict management at the domestic level, drawing on the World Bank’s Investor Grievance Mechanism framework and UNCITRAL’s Toolkit on Prevention and Mitigation of International Investment Disputes.
What structures could a State put in place to effectively manage conflicts with investors, resolve differences, and retain investment? What organizational and administrative considerations need to be addressed for effective investment dispute management?
Our panelists will explore these questions and more, sharing insights from their work.
Speakers:
Priyanka Kher: Priyanka is a Senior Private Sector Specialist in the Global Investment Climate Unit of the World Bank Group. She leads advisory and research projects on policy, legal, and regulatory reforms to help countries attract, retain, and benefit from investment. Her country-level engagements have focused on Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She has published widely on domestic investment policy and facilitation frameworks, mega-regional trade and investment agreements, regional integration, regulatory risks, investor-State disputes, dispute prevention, and business environment reforms. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she worked at law firms in India and Singapore, advising private sector clients on domestic and cross-border investment transactions. She has also served as a consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Commonwealth Secretariat on investment policy, international trade, and investment law. She holds a master's degree from Harvard Law School and is a dual-qualified attorney admitted to practice in New York and India.
Judith Knieper: Judith is a legal officer at the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in Vienna. Until her appointment to the Secretariat, she had been working in Southeast Europe from 1998 to 2013 for numerous donors and organizations, e.g. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (CoE), World Bank and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Germany's federal enterprise for international cooperation. She obtained both Legal State Exams in Frankfurt, Germany, as well as her Ph.D. and is also qualified and certified as a mediator.
Moderator:
Frauke Nitschke: Frauke is Chief Counsel at ICSID and serves as the team leader for one of the Centre’s case management teams. Frauke further leads ICSID’s investor-State mediation activities, including the development of the ICSID Mediation Rules, amendments to ICSID’s conciliation frameworks, and ICSID’s Background Paper on Investment Mediation. Frauke has developed and conducted investor-State capacity-building workshops and training for mediators and government officials and led the Centre’s contributions on mediation to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III on investor-State dispute settlement reform. She is an accredited mediator and a fellow of the Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship Program. Frauke is admitted to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C., and holds law degrees from the Freie Universität Berlin and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M.), and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from the FernUniversität Hagen.