Most rich countries developed without aid, and this 'self-development' has some intrinsic advantages. In today's massively unequal world, however, such an approach would imply very low levels of human development for several generations for many poor countries. Aid can therefore usefully be...

This concluding chapter looks across BRICS as a whole to examine differences and commonalities in development discourses, and in the structures that have emerged as a consequence of international engagements, as well as the role of the BRICS grouping’s emerging collective structures and their...