Drawing on a neo-Gramscian perspective, it is argued that considerable policy convergence at both the level of international organization and the state has made a significant contribution towards generating the required global sentiment within which emerging powers' redistributive demands are more likely to receive a sympathetic hearing. These dynamics are illustrated with reference to the global poverty debate. The recent “rediscovery” of global poverty seems symptomatic of various ongoing processes whereby a basis for a coalition between the privileged powers and those not so privileged (the emerging powers) is being constituted as a response to the need for a more socially responsible world order. After considering some broad parallels between the policy convergence process in South Africa and Brazil, this paper concludes by highlighting some of the initiatives state elites in Pretoria and Brasilia have launched in reaction to the newly emerging policy space within which their esteem as rising states can be demonstrated.