Abstract
BRICS, the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is the first multilateral group created and run by non-western developed countries. The group aims to influence world geopolitics and market based on the right of developing and emerging countries to participate equitably in development. The social issue lies at the core of the group’s justifications to achieve its goals. In this regard, this paper aims to analyze how the social issue has been addressed by BRICS. The methodology was based on bibliographic research and documentary analysis of the Declarations resulting from the nine BRICS Summits held from 2009 to 2017. Findings indicate that the social problem was necessary for the affirmation of the group’s project in the global context. While there are advances in some social indicators and poverty has been reduced, the results in many social commitments of the group are weak. This can be attributed to the centrality of national contexts in the social issue, internal differences between countries, the non-mandatory nature of the group’s initiatives, or because, while showing powerful strategies for new global arrangements, the social issue remains subsumed to geopolitical and market objectives.
Social issue; BRICS; Social policy