Models of Measuring Cooperation: Brazil and Mexico

Abstract Over the past few decades, South-South cooperation has grown in terms of actors, volume, geographic reach, instruments, and modalities, but, statistics on this type of cooperation have been incomplete and fragmented. The technical, political, and institutional challenges in measuring South-South cooperation are emphasised by countries like Brazil and Mexico, chosen as cases to be analysed in the text. The article explores the experiences in measuring international cooperation provided by Brazil and Mexico, starting with the characterization of the two national trajectories in the quantification and the modalities that determine the process, and analyses the main similarities and differences presented between the cases. The analysis of the countries studied in this article evidence the different institutional designs of international cooperation and the establishment of measurement models elaborated by governments based on their own realities of international cooperation, indicating, therefore, that the process of measuring international cooperation is not only a statistical issue, but above all, a political one. Seen in these terms, South-South cooperation measurement exercises have provided more knowledge about how cooperation activities are organized and their relation to global development agendas, and have also consolidated the transparency of public expenditure.cooperation and development; South-South cooperation; public expenditure; Brazil; Mexico; measurement.