BRICS at 25: What Does a Changing Global Order Mean for Africa?

As BRICS marks 25 years since the term “BRIC” was coined and 20 years since the first formal political engagement among its original members, the grouping has reached an important stage. What began with Brazil, Russia, India and China has developed into a major international platform that now includes several important economies from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The expansion matters because BRICS represents a substantial share of the world's population, economic output, trade and energy resources. More importantly, it reflects a gradual shift towards a more multipolar international system in which developing countries have alternatives to the traditional centres of global economic power.

For Africa, however, the important question is not how large BRICS becomes, but what Africa gains from the changing global order.

A More Multipolar World

For decades, the international economic system has been strongly influenced by institutions and powers centred in Europe and North America. The rise of China, India and other emerging economies has gradually altered that balance.

BRICS countries have called for greater representation of developing countries in global institutions, stronger South-South cooperation and alternative channels for development finance. The New Development Bank and increasing interest in local-currency transactions illustrate this direction.

Greater competition among global powers can benefit Africa by providing more choices in investment, infrastructure, technology, trade and development finance.

But more choices do not automatically produce development.

Energy, Influence and the Challenge of Cohesion

The expanded BRICS has considerable influence over global energy. It includes major producers such as Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while China and India are among the world's largest energy consumers.

This creates opportunities for cooperation in energy security, renewable energy, critical minerals, technology and infrastructure.

At the same time, BRICS contains countries with different political systems, security interests and international alliances. Some members maintain close relationships with Western countries, while others favour a more direct challenge to Western influence.

Expansion has therefore increased both the strength and complexity of BRICS. Its long-term importance will depend on whether members can translate broad agreement on reforming the international system into practical cooperation despite their differences.

What BRICS Means for Africa

South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia are full BRICS members, while other African countries participate through wider BRICS partnerships. This gives Africa a stronger presence, but representation alone should not be confused with development.

The real questions are practical. Can these relationships help Africa industrialise, strengthen universities and research institutions, improve infrastructure, develop technology, create employment and process more of its natural resources locally?

Africa must also avoid simply changing the direction of dependency.

If we continue exporting raw materials and importing manufactured products, machinery and technology, little has fundamentally changed simply because our major economic partners have shifted from West to East.

A multipolar world should instead allow African countries to negotiate better partnerships and diversify their economic relationships. The objective should be to use this competition to build African productive capacity.

What It Means for Ghana

Ghana should pay close attention to these developments even though it is not a BRICS member.

We possess gold, cocoa, oil, lithium and other resources of international interest. Yet Ghana's long-standing development problem has never simply been finding countries willing to buy these resources. The challenge is converting them into domestic productive capacity.

Exporting gold while importing large quantities of manufactured products does not constitute structural transformation. Neither does exporting cocoa while importing processed cocoa products. Lithium will make little difference to Ghana's long-term development if we merely become another supplier of raw minerals to foreign industries.

Whether our partners come from Europe, America, China, India or elsewhere, we should ask the same question:

What lasting productive capacity is Ghana building from the relationship?

Our foreign economic policy should increasingly be guided by this principle.

Major investment agreements should be assessed not only by the amount of money entering the country but also by the industries created, Ghanaian businesses involved, technology transferred, skills developed and sustainable jobs generated.

This requires moving from simple resource diplomacy towards development diplomacy.

Development Still Begins at Home

BRICS can create opportunities for Ghana and Africa, but it cannot solve our domestic development problems for us.

It cannot strengthen weak institutions, ensure accountability for public resources, maintain infrastructure, improve education or create a coherent national development strategy on our behalf.

External partnerships can provide capital, technology, knowledge and markets. Whether these become instruments of development depends on how African countries use them.

This is why Africa should neither romanticise BRICS nor view it simply as a geopolitical alternative to the West. China, India, Russia, Brazil, the United States and European countries all pursue their national interests. African countries must become equally serious about pursuing theirs.

The rise of BRICS should therefore be understood as an opportunity rather than a development model.

The Real Question for Africa

Twenty-five years after the BRIC idea emerged, the global economic landscape is clearly changing. Africa now has more potential partners and potentially greater negotiating space than in previous decades.

But multipolarity itself will not transform Africa.

The real test is whether African countries can use this changing international environment to strengthen productive capacity, add value to natural resources, develop technology, build effective institutions and create opportunities for their people.

For Ghana, therefore, the most important question is not whether BRICS becomes more powerful or whether it eventually challenges Western dominance.

It is much simpler:
How can Ghana use a changing global order to become more productive, more technologically capable and less dependent?

The world may be changing around us, but transformation will ultimately depend on what we do with the opportunities it creates.

Dr. Isaac Yaw Asiedu
Author, Shifting Mindsets for Sustainable Development in Africa: A Political Economy Perspective
Rethinking Africa: www.rethinkingafrica.org