Jennifer Constantine

From Policy Transfer to Mutual Learning

The economic and geopolitical shifts of recent years have forced the oecd-dac member countries to offer greater recognition to the development cooperation activities of the BRICS and other rising powers, who claim to follow a different logic from the coercive policy transfer models associated with North-South development cooperation. At the same time, there has been rapid growth in international “mutual learning” outside the formal framework of development cooperation. This paper explores the implications of this for international policy diffusion in the age of “universal” development envisaged by the UN’s Agenda 2030.

Looking Across BRICS: An Emerging International Development Agenda?

BRICS has transitioned from concept to international reality, including the important contribution of a new development model. The BRICS countries have changed development assistance to developing countries by basing it on their own experiences of development, aid and growth. The BRICS countries share similarities in this experience as well as national specificities and differences. The model shows that trade and business investments assist growth and encourage horizontal partnerships between countries. BRICS has created new financial institutions (e.g. development and infrastructure banks) to cater to specific development needs where the BRICS countries can call the shots. The efficacy of these financial institutions and BRICS as an economic and political grouping will play out in the coming decades.