despite its undeniable importance, is the Multilateral Cooperation Agreement on Innovation (MCAI). The MCAI, originally formalised in 2010, is an arrangement agreed by the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism. It aims to enhance interbank cooperation and support technological innovation and embedded projects, especially in areas such as infrastructure, clean energy, and agribusiness (Dhar, 2014).
2.3 Means of implementation for the Post-2015 development agenda 2.3.1 Plurilateralism versus multilateralism - Making the UN fit for purpose Global governance encompasses institutions, policies, norms, procedures and initiatives through which states and their citizens endeavour to bring more predictability, stability and order to their responses to transnational challenges. Effective global governance can therefore only be achieved with effective international cooperation. Intergovernmental cooperation, at the centre of the global partnership for development, plays a vital role in the achievement of global development goals (UNDESA, 2014). Strengthening global governance is imperative this year, as the international community led by the UN is working hard to build consensus on the adoption of a new development agenda and to implement its 17 SDGs. As noted earlier in this chapter, global economic governance is experiencing a transition period that is progressing incrementally, but in a fragmented and chaotic
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way. Current conditions are unlikely to lead to a quick agreement for the establishment of a new system, as happened after the Second World War with the establishment of the BWIs. Today’s situation differs substantively from the past. On the one hand, global economic institutions are considered especially relevant since the global issues they address are becoming more challenging. On the other hand, global economic governance institutions are struggling to restructure at the speed required to keep up with global economic power shifts, and the proliferation of bilateral and regional initiatives that are striving to overcome gaps in the existing system. The process has been described by Eric Helleneir as ‘cooperative decentralization’. This scenario is likely to endure in the long term if the status quo does not change (Helleneir, 2014). One of the main reasons behind these recent developments is the fact that the current system is built on a dual-structure of economic rules that differentiates developed and developing countries. This pattern does not match the current triple-structure of global power characterised by the advent of the ‘emerging economies’; a group that has risen in-between developed and developing countries. Helleneir (2014) suggests this current situation is the consequence of an active policy strategy of the U.S., accompanied by weakness in Europe, combined with the conservatism of policy makers in the large emerging economies. The current scenario can be inscribed into a framework that contra poses multilateralism and plurilateralism. Plurilateralism is not something new to international relations, since