From Policy Transfer to Mutual Learning?: Political Recognition, Power and Process in the Emerging Landscape of International Development Cooperation

Abstract

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 associ ated 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.