POLICY BRIEFING 8
Emerging Powers Programme
November 2009
IBSA Six Years On: Co-operation in a RECOMMENDATIONS New Global Order • Collaboration development efforts should be IBSA’s (India–Brazil–South Africa) core priority. Galvanising Lyal White1 development orientation ahead of such issues as global economic governance — better covered by groupings like BRIC (Brazil–Russia–India–China) — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY will avoid clouding its priorities. ix years after its launch, offi cials can no longer claim that the • IBSA should focus on improving India–Brazil–South Africa (IBSA) Forum is still in its infancy. coherence between inter-governmental S It is time to evaluate results and missed opportunities to provide a working groups and non-government balanced assessment. forums with regular exchanges In the wake of an international fi nancial crisis and a changing global throughout the year between annual architecture, its original raison d’être — multilateral system reforms, IBSA summits. stronger coalitions of the South and development co-operation — is • The development fund needs to more pertinent than ever. Critics question its achievements and the be expanded. This should become merits of a coalition of emerging powers that excludes notables like IBSA’s flagship and its interface with China. But others insist it has facilitated dialogue and exchange at a the developing world. Emerging level and frequency previously unimaginable. donor functions, currently carried out Certainly, IBSA is a recognised and powerful coalition that enjoys bilaterally, can be incorporated into an a strong consensus among members. Efforts to improve co-operation enlarged IBSA development fund. for development has become a core niche that could ultimately • Efforts should be directed to become the driving force behind IBSA and reconfi gure its role in trade facilitation, not overarching the developing world, Africa in particular. This distinguishes it from trade agreements. Better connectivity, other emerging coalitions, making it an example of development removal of double taxation, visa co-operation in a new global order. exemption and homogenous business practices are more urgent than an INTRODUCTION IBSA-wide free trade agreement. IBSA was launched in Brasilia in June 2003. Hailed as an alliance • IBSA and BRIC can and should of like-minded democracies from the developing South, member co-exist. Each performs a different countries wanted a loose arrangement without a fi xed secretariat but function and has an important global with an ambitious agenda focused on global governance and inter- role. Open dialogue should exist — sectoral co-operation. especially when it comes to systemic Now, after six years, and about to hold its fourth summit, IBSA is reforms and a collective position, no longer in its ‘infancy’. With the global economy at a precipice and including Africa. emerging powers playing an increasing part in agenda setting, its role
AFRICAN INSIGHTS. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES. IBSA SIX YEARS ON: CO-OPERATION IN A NEW GLOBAL ORDER
can be more relevant than ever. America and a driving force for multilateral Offi cials from all three countries insist it has decision-making. Co-ordination is most evident achieved much in a short time: encouraging at the United Nations, where there is a 96% active dialogue among members, promoting vote convergence among IBSA countries and co-operation in key ministries and adding its the reform of global institutions, especially the collective weight in multilateral forums. Security Council, has always been a priority. But critics argue that progress has been slow While strategies for achieving permanent seats and that results fall far short of initial lofty for IBSA members vary, demands for reform and ambitions. One observer describes IBSA as little representation do not. more than a ‘gathering of friends’. Economic realities hamper market Some suggest that members themselves convergence. Trade among the three countries has differ on their perceptions of its role. India and increased impressively from $3.9 billion in 2003 Brazil are emerging economic powers that wield to just over $10 billion in 2008. But compared to enormous influence unilaterally, while South trade between China and Brazil — $43 billion in Africa benefi ts from being part of a heavyweight 2008 — it is still small. collective that bolsters its global infl uence. For Bureaucrats working on IBSA concede Brazil, IBSA forms part of a southern development that market integration is a pipe dream. strategy that cuts across government ministries. Insurmountable regional constraints pre-date India maintains a low profi le, using IBSA to drive the alliance. A trilateral agreement would have its multilateral agenda and generate credibility on to include other regional partners, the Southern its nuclear aspirations. African Customs Union and the Common Market The rise of Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) of the South (Mercosur) in particular, which as a coalition of emerging powers in the face of would ensure an endless negotiating battle. A divergent interests and interpretations around more realistic goal might be an arrangement that IBSA also brings to the fore a number of questions simply declares existing agreements between the vis-a-vis IBSA and emerging power coalitions in regional blocs to fall under an IBSA umbrella. But general. this would be more symbolic than coherent trade Given global developments and the divergent integration.2 views on IBSA, it is important to evaluate progress Facilitating trade through improved in the global arena and its future as a forum for connectivity and harmonised policies would be a dialogue and action. more pertinent and achievable target. IBSA has 17 government-to-government TAKING STOCK SIX YEARS ON working groups that exchange knowledge and experience regularly — a practical approach to IBSA has signifi cantly improved relations among trilateral development co-operation. And there India, Brazil and South Africa. It is a platform are seven people-to-people forums which meet for dialogue and exchange between ministries at annual summits to encourage non-government and non-government entities. More importantly, relations. it has created a common culture of constructive The working groups have had mixed results. co-operation. Science and technology seem to be leading the Its greatest achievement to date is in political way with joint initiatives including a research co-ordination, something that previously was, at trip to Antarctica. They also share technology best, impulsive. One Brazilian academic describes on biofuels, a cross-cutting issue that affects Brazil’s South–South agenda in previous decades other important working groups, for example on as non-committal. The country ‘talked-the-talk’ climate change and energy. but never really ‘signed up or paid the price’. In revenue services, Brazil has established a Today it is arguably the most active partner, with special unit, based on the South African model, to development projects across Africa and Latin deal specifi cally with large taxpayers, while South
SAIIA POLICY BRIEFING 8 2 IBSA SIX YEARS ON: CO-OPERATION IN A NEW GLOBAL ORDER
Africa and India explore the IT technology that REALISING DEVELOPMENT has helped Brazil improve revenue collection and PRIORITIES effi ciency. The business forums have yielded impressive IBSA has always maintained a strong focus results. Where there was little or no formal on development. Shortly after its creation it dialogue before, business has now become an characterised itself as a forum for ‘economic active and visible gathering on the sidelines development and social equity’.3 This description at IBSA summits. The small business forum is covered the many challenges facing each country creating a database of all small and medium while expressing a broader intention to improve businesses in all three countries. development and integration in Africa, Asia and But outside of government and even within Latin America. certain ministries, criticism of IBSA and its Brazil has been a particularly strong proponent working groups is unanimous: these groups have of development, embracing co-operation as a proved more complicated than expected. Results foreign policy priority. As an ‘emerging provider’ have been slow in coming and there is a need for (not just an emerging power), it is eager to share greater coherence and focus. knowledge with less developed countries. Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the DEVELOPMENT FUND SUCCESS Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, describes this as a ‘spirit of genuine solidarity ... a social and The IBSA development fund has become an political — rather than economic — motivation in unexpected success story. By applying a simple, Brazilian international co-operation initiatives’.4 effective approach to developmental assistance, it Brazilians have started calling this innovative has delivered positive results relatively quickly. blend of social assistance and technical support With a small annual contribution of $1 million ‘social technology’. Africa is clearly a priority a member, the fund is administered by the United for Brazil, which sees South Africa as an Nations Development Programme and targets essential partner and IBSA as a potential forum small localised projects in some of the most to boost existing activities. Of its 318 technical impoverished parts of the world. co-operation projects abroad, 125 are in 19 Three projects have been completed: a African countries. waste management project in Haiti, small-scale Building on existing linkages, Brazilian agricultural development in Guinea Bissau and offi cials indicate that IBSA could be an effective a health care clinic in Cape Verde. Four more vehicle to promote Brazil’s development agenda. are nearing completion: an HIV/Aids testing and And India, Brazil and South Africa could collapse counselling centre in Burundi, a sports centre certain existing bilateral programmes (such in Palestine (to be completed by March 2010), as those mentioned above) and combine with a school in Gaza, and an unspecified project the development fund to form a larger IBSA in Laos. co-operation initiative with third party countries. The development fund liaises with local Thus the fund could be augmented and its overall government and partners with local operators — impact enhanced. important to avoid any impression of a new wave of imperialism. IBSA AND EMERGING GROUPINGS These projects could be the greenshoots of a new core priority, driving the three countries The rise of BRIC as a formal grouping after its fi rst toward greater development co-operation in summit in June 2009 is widely misunderstood. their own regions. The development fund is an BRIC is little more than a collection of emerging effective instrument that demonstrates IBSA’s economic powers, a term coined by Jim O’Neil of true potential. Goldman Sachs. While it is expected to dwarf the G7 economically within 20–30 years, the reality is
SAIIA POLICY BRIEFING 8 3 IBSA SIX YEARS ON: CO-OPERATION IN A NEW GLOBAL ORDER
that these countries have little in common. that can and should be exploited. The June summit yielded little consensus Development as a priority cuts across various and most observers — including O’Neil himself IBSA working groups and is the rationale behind — doubt BRIC will become an active grouping. discussions in non-government fora. The It may however prompt certain broad-level development fund in particular has become a economic reforms and push for a restructuring conduit for co-operation between IBSA members of the global fi nancial architecture. It is, after all, and recipient countries in the developing a prominent grouping that has captured world world. This could extend to improved technical attention.5 co-operation and the transfer of social technology But its role is very different from that of IBSA. to underdeveloped countries, mostly in Africa. Certainly factions in Brazil see BRIC much as Development co-operation distinguishes IBSA South Africa views IBSA — a forum to bolster from other emerging confi gurations like BRIC. its power and infl uence on the global stage. This In the wake of international financial turmoil appeals to interests outside government (especially and a much talked about ‘shift’ to a multi-polar business) and prompts some to question whether world order from West to East, the hype around BRIC will or has replaced IBSA in the minds of groupings of emerging powers is to be expected. the Brazilians and Indians and, if so, where does But BRIC is founded on economic imperatives, this leave South Africa? not on a move to development and political But BRIC satisfies only a small part of the co-operation, like IBSA. That is why IBSA and international vision of India and Brazil. IBSA BRIC can and should co-exist. operates in a different dimension — one with a stronger development focus that may be more ENDNOTES politically palatable. Africa features prominently in the foreign policy agenda of both countries for 1 Dr Lyal White is a research associate at the South commercial and sentimental reasons. So IBSA and African Institute of International Affairs. South Africa are needed. 2 A preferential trade agreement exists between the Southern African Customs Union and the Common CONCLUSION Market of the South (Mercosur). 3 This was reiterated in a statement by Brazilian Six years on, IBSA has a mixed record. Critics Foreign Minister Celso Amorim at an IBSA believe outcomes have been slow and real gathering in August 2005. tangibles scarce. But this view is based on 4 See Sotero P, ‘Brazil as an emerging donor: Huge commercial expectations and the organisation’s potential and growing pains’, Development Outreach, role in global agenda-setting. The reality is that World Bank Institute, 2009,
The Emerging Powers Programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency and the Royal Danish Embassy, Pretoria. SAIIA gratefully acknowledges this support.
© SAIIA 2009 All rights reserved. Opinions expressed are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of SAIIA.
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