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Summary Motivation Universal challenges require collective responsibility for identifying future pathways and solutions, unprecedented levels of global co‐operation and a clear set of principles and norms to shape needed actions and responses. In a changing landscape of actors, the norms that have previously evolved and served the interests of one particular group of actors may no longer be fit for purpose. Purpose The article explores questions about how and why different societal actors and stakeholders are shaping and informing development co‐operation norms, and whether newer members of a growing community of development aid providers will want to sit at an existing table, or go their own way, individually or with other collectives. Methods and approach The article responds to these questions by drawing on existing literature, and offering an analysis of past, present, and possible future directions for the emergence of international development norms and supernorms. Building on this analysis, it casts forward, to examine the role of new actors and the emergence of new norms, paying particular attention to South–South development co‐operation. Findings The article proposes a series of challenges and choices which may determine future pathways for current and emerging international development norms. It concludes that emerging donors can challenge or co‐operate with existing norms, while traditional donors must decide how to react to the emergence of other development actors: to contest, or to co‐ordinate and co‐operate through the emergence of new norms which are created and agreed to by both old and new actors. Policy implications Future processes of negotiation will require dedicated policy spaces in which global actors can negotiate and contest new norms in a shared quest to secure their position in the complex, ever‐shifting landscape of international co‐operation arrangements.