The BRICS, south-south cooperation and the international development field

The past decade was the stage of major transformations in the field of International Cooperation for Development (ICD). In this period, new providers - developing countries, private agents and civil organizations - became leading figures in the field. Among those "new providers", the BRICS countries occupy a prominent position. This article discusses the structural transformations of the ICD field and, particularly, the effects of the emergence of new providers, such as the BRICS, on the positions and dynamics that characterize the field. The article intends to demonstrate that the emergence of "new providers" and new modalities of international cooperation resulted in the decentralization of the field of ICD. In this context, begins a process of reordering of the field, in which the institutional architecture of the ICD becomes a stage of intense political quarrel between traditional donors and "new providers". The article analyses some central features of this quarrel and suggests that the ongoing process of decentering and reordering of the field of ICD destabilized not only the position occupied by traditional donors, but also the position of the new providers.

BRICS; International Cooperation for Development; International Development; South-South Cooperation