Leaders from Iran, Egypt, China, Russia, South Africa, Ethiopia and Brazil attend the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 24, 2024/SCREENGRAB
For countries trying to flee the haunting
shadows of a Western world-imposed unipolar hegemony, 2024 marked a new dawn
for BRICS as a growing global entity.
BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The emerging and expanding market countries that seek deeper ties and economic cooperation attracted four more members, notably from Africa, to its growing ranks.
This new entity brings agility and focus, offering hope to African countries whose socio-economic and development aspirations have been undermined by exploitative trading deals in an international system largely controlled by Western entities.
Among the countries that joined BRICS was Egypt and Ethiopia. Egypt has the largest GDP in Africa while Ethiopia is the second most populous country on the African continent. They joined South Africa, another African powerhouse and founder member of BRICS. These countries are seeking genuine and fair partnerships that can help them achieve their goals.
This begs the question: Why are African countries showing such interest in BRICS despite their continued close ties with traditional partners Europe and the United States of America? The answer is simple.
BRICS offers a free, equal, global platform that brings together countries with different political systems, levels of economic development, values, and cultures, but with shared interests and converging positions on multipolar world order and global governance.
In a nutshell, BRICS is cured of the “Big Brother and Globocop mentality” that has shoved the resource-rich continent to the corner of penury, where its citizens are trapped in disease, ignorance, and a perpetual state of begging. This is the cruel paradox of a one-sided Africa-West partnership that catalysed the birth of the fast-expanding BRICS!
And 30 more countries are queueing for admission into the BRICS family, where they will be free to express, pursue, defend, and implement their people-centred national, economic, political, cultural, and value ideals.
Within the BRICS framework, there is hope that African countries can finally begin to face and deal with the vestiges of colonialism and inimical chords of neo-colonialism and imperialism, and even the sickly post-modernism that is the bane of a sovereign and resource-rich continent.
For Africa to live its Africa Rising moment riding on its resources, including young and buoyant population and natural resources, it must be part of the shifting economic power balance. This centrifugal force of this momentum is in BRICS.
The fact is that today, the bulk of real rather than virtual production is outside the West. The five BRICS countries already contribute more to global GDP than the G7 countries. BRICS is expected to generate over 50 per cent of global GDP by 2030, and with the admission of new members, this figure will be reached much sooner.
Africa has its undoubted advantages in shaping the new world order. It accounts for about a third of the world's natural resources, and it is increasingly averse to being a source of raw materials for old and new industrial giants.
It wants investments with value addition to create opportunities, wealth, and a future for its people, especially the youth. And it has what it takes–abundant human capital, markets, and natural resources.
The potential of the BRICS New Development Bank is exciting to Africa. As an independent financial institution whose main objective is to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects, the total amount of NDB funds reached $200 billion in 2024. And as of the beginning of the year, about 90 projects worth more than $30 billion had been approved by the NDB.
Moreover, it is proposed that a new investment platform for BRICS countries using electronic assets be created through which it would be possible to invest in emerging markets, including markets in Africa.
Beyond trade and economics, the BRICS partnership aims to address externally induced insecurity like intra-state conflicts, terrorism, and other insurgency, especially in mineral-rich regions that create an avenue to exploit the continent’s resources.
These conflicts are ready markets for arms dealers and their cronies to the detriment of peace and security, which are prerequisites for socio-economic take-off.
Recent events in West Africa, where anti-French sentiment is only growing, prove that most African states are looking for new security guarantees, and partnership with the BRICS countries is one of the most promising prospects.
However, security is not limited to the military aspect. For Africans, the problem of food security is more pressing than ever. According to FAO, the number of undernourished Africans in 2022 was 276 million, 89.1 million more than in 2014.
The continent is enormously dependent on supplies of cereals. African countries import about 40 million tonnes of wheat a year worth $15 billion, which makes them highly vulnerable to changes in market conditions, logistics chains, and political events.
BRICS proposes the creation of new instruments to ensure food security. For example, the creation of a BRICS grain exchange will, one, allow the protection of the national markets of the member countries from outside interference and, two, form fair prices for grain.
A transparent settlement mechanism, including the use of digital currencies, will create a counterweight to the monopoly of large US grain exchanges.
In addition to the fact that BRICS includes major producers and suppliers of food and fertilisers, the BRICS countries are ready to share their agricultural technologies, allowing Africans to independently increase farm productivity and provide the population with food through developing their agricultural production.
Achieving financial independence is a crucial challenge for Global South countries, including those in Africa. The BRICS nations are actively committed to enhancing the autonomy and financial sovereignty of their members. They are determined to establish robust payment mechanisms that will effectively support and promote trade among them.
Also notable is that BRICS nations have a commitment to combating climate change. Their approach advocates for equitable and differentiated responsibilities based on each country’s capabilities and national circumstances. This position is supported by many African nations in the face of unmet pledges from the talk shows at global forums such as the Conference of Parties.
It is, therefore, critical that Africa seize the momentum of 2024 to assert its role in the BRICS family and contribute to a multipolar global order. It must harness the technology and fair play enshrined in the BRICS partnership framework. And it has no option but to overcome its ambivalence and move away from a secondary position in socio-economic, political, and technological fields for the benefit of its people and humanity.
Perhaps what is missing is the K (Kenya) to make it complete the solid BRICK! Is anyone listening?
The writer is consulting and training editor
