This paper addresses the relevance of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) as an inspiration for a new global economic order based on greater equality between the North and the South. It analyses the 1974 UN declaration and plan of action as one of the earliest attempts to articulate the demands of newly decolonised states. It notes the forces that defeated the NIEO including the importance of neoliberal restructurings at the end of the 1970s. It examines some of the similarities and differences between the global economic and political order at the time and contemporary realities. It discusses the ways in which the NIEO may be relevant for the elaboration of a new, more just and equitable, global order and which social forces may be able to bring such an order into being, with particular reference to BRICS and BRICS+.