This open access handbook analyses the role of development cooperation in achieving the 2030 Agenda in a global context of 'contested cooperation'. Development actors, including governments providing aid or South-South Cooperation, developing countries, and non-governmental actors (civil society, philanthropy, and businesses) constantly challenge underlying narratives and norms of development. The book explores how reconciling these differences fosters achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Existing global frameworks for development cooperation are heavily dominated by the experiences of industrialized countries. However, emerging economies have begun to accelerate their development cooperation with other developing countries, and attempts to bring them into existing aid models have been met with caution and reservation. This expert and topical volume explores the development cooperation policies of China, India, Brazil and South Africa and compares them with those of Mexico and Western actors. In exploring the motivation and execution of these countries' development policies, the volume will analyze how South-South cooperation has evolved, and where it differs from traditional development cooperation. This vital new collection brings together first-hand experience from a range of national experts from these countries, to provide a forward-looking analysis of global frameworks and the evolution of a possible convergence of traditional and emerging development actors.