What the 18th BRICS Summit Means for Kenya and Africa

By Stephen Ndegwa

The 18th BRICS Summit, held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, marked 20 years of the grouping and closed with the unanimous adoption of a comprehensive New Delhi Declaration running to some 140 points.

Negotiators reportedly worked through the night, a sign of how much consensus an expanded bloc speaking for roughly half the world's population now requires.

BRICS has moved well beyond its original conception as a loose grouping of major emerging economies.

Its agenda now reaches into global economic governance, trade, development finance, artificial intelligence, climate change, food security, public health, transport and digital infrastructure.

More importantly, the New Delhi meeting sought to position the expanded grouping as a platform through which emerging markets and developing countries can exert greater influence over institutions that still reflect an older distribution of global power.

That political argument was reinforced by the presence of an unusually broad gathering of leaders and senior representatives. The summit brought together the heads of major emerging economies alongside partner countries and participants in the BRICS Plus and Outreach process.

Their presence demonstrated the continuing attraction of a forum that gives countries of the Global South an alternative setting in which to discuss economic and geopolitical interests.

The declaration's strongest message was about representation. BRICS renewed its call for reform of the United Nations and the international financial institutions, arguing that the IMF and World Bank must better reflect the weight of emerging and developing economies.

It also recognised the longstanding African demand for greater representation on the United Nations Security Council and recorded support from China and Russia for the aspirations of Brazil and India to play a larger role in the United Nations system.

For Africa, this is not an abstract diplomatic debate. The continent remains deeply exposed to decisions taken in institutions where its voice is often weaker than its development needs would suggest.

The declaration's emphasis on debt sustainability, development finance, climate adaptation and a more representative global economic system therefore touches some of Africa's central concerns.

Kenya should pay particular attention to the economic possibilities rather than viewing BRICS only through the lens of geopolitics.

The declaration advances work on cross border payments, the use of local currencies, resilient global value chains and mechanisms for mobilising private capital for development projects.

It also welcomes progress on the BRICS Multilateral Guarantees initiative, which is intended to improve creditworthiness and reduce financing costs in BRICS and other Global South economies.

These priorities intersect with Kenya's own development requirements. The country needs investment in infrastructure, affordable financing, digital connectivity, industrial capacity and access to wider export markets.

The declaration's proposals on digital trade documentation, resilient supply chains and greater integration into global value chains could become relevant to African economies seeking to move beyond the export of raw commodities.

Food security and climate resilience provide another important connection. BRICS countries recognise their collective importance to global food production and propose greater cooperation on agricultural trade, fertiliser supplies, drought-resistant seeds and resilient food systems.

The declaration also acknowledges that developing economies face disproportionate climate risks and significant shortages of adaptation finance.

For Kenya, where climate shocks can rapidly become economic and food security shocks, these areas offer obvious scope for cooperation with BRICS members and partner countries.

Technology is another emerging arena. The declaration places digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, digital skills and connectivity within the development agenda and explicitly stresses the need to make AI more accessible to the Global South.

This is potentially significant for Kenya's technology sector, particularly if BRICS cooperation develops into practical partnerships in skills, digital systems, research and investment.

Indeed, the summit’s declaration contains numerous commitments, proposals and areas for further discussion.

Their significance will depend on implementation, financing and the willingness of member states with very different economic interests and foreign policy priorities to translate consensus into functioning mechanisms.

That is also why India's role in the summit matters. New Delhi managed to keep development, technology, resilience and institutional reform at the centre of the BRICS agenda while maintaining the grouping's broad political character.

The declaration acknowledges more than 400 meetings and engagements held across 30 Indian cities during the year, suggesting an effort to give the chairmanship a wider institutional base than the leaders' summit alone.

Countries of the Global South are increasingly seeking a greater hand in determining the institutions, financing arrangements and technologies that will shape their development. BRICS gives that ambition an organised forum.

For Kenya and other African economies, the significance lies in being able to engage that changing landscape on the basis of national interests and development priorities.

The Star