Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa ranked among the world’s fastest-growing market economies. In the early 2000’s, Jim O’Neill coined the term BRICS and anticipated that by 2050, China and India will become the first and third largest economies while Brazil and Russia will rank fifth and sixth respectively.
Throughout the years, BRICS have proved to be a force whereby the GDP of each country has increased substantially indicating the effectiveness of the joined association. Today, BRICS make up 42% of the World’s Population, 27% of the Global GDP and 17% of Global trade.
What’s the next step for BRICS?
The United Nations set up the 2030 Agenda that included 17 Sustainable Development goals to be implemented worldwide and started raising awareness regarding the need to effectively integrate these goals in every country. UN considered the BRICS countries to be essential in leading global efforts to achieving the SDGs and in helping other less developed countries work toward these sustainable goals. Even though BRICS started implementing some of these goals, whereby a study on BRICS’ companies indicated the following;
In India and China, the emphasis is on Industry Innovation and Infrastructure
In Brazil and South Africa, the emphasis is on Peace Justice and Strong Institutions
In Brazil and India, the emphasis is on Decent Work and Economic Growth
However, several goals were still being overlooked, mainly Gender equality SDG-5 at the workplace whereby the gap between male and female workers remains substantial throughout the years with minimal increase in female participation. Moreover, the change over time of women taking on managerial and leadership positions remains low whereby India witnessed the highest increase rate of 13%, Russia’s increase was 9%, Brazil and South Africa had the lowest increase rates of 6% and 4% respectively. However, Russia has the largest number overall of Women in Managerial Positions (as we notice the high increase in India, 13%, was due to having very low overall female participation rate in the work place).
What’s the problem? Why should the BRICS countries care about huge discrepancies in female participation in labor force?
The United Nations considers Gender equality SDG-5 a fundamental goal, not only because it consists of empowering young girls and women which is a basic human right, but also because it implements a foundation for peace, prosperity and longevity. Working on eliminating gender inequality in the workplace and allowing women to thrive with their careers and lead companies, countries and households will help achieve overall sustainability and viability.
“I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. … We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” – Malala Yousafzai
It is best described by the above saying of activist Malala Yousafzai, how are countries supposed to thrive when half their populations (which is consisted of women) are being held back, overlooked, and denied their basic rights. Having low levels of female participation rates in labor can have a negative impact on the economies in the five BRICS countries which could lead to reducing their growth rate as well.
BRICS countries need to implement social and economic policies to re-enforce equal participation of females in the workplace; Women would have new employment and business opportunities thanks to gender-responsive trade policies.
It would be easier for women to transition from hazardous work to more secure and well-protected employment if they had better access to education and training options.
A wider range of social services would reduce the burden of caring on women and provide them more time for paid work and leisure activities.
Flexible employment arrangements, which are already in place in response to the epidemic, ought to be maintained once it has passed and offer a fresh framework for household shared responsibility.
In conclusion, we cannot stress enough the negative impact that gender inequality will keep having on overall countries’ economic, political and social performance.
