BRICS Week

Preparatory event for BRICS Summit attended by Conectas

Conectas is taking part in “BRICS Week” between August 21 and 24 at O.P. Jindal Global University, in India. In preparation for the 9th BRICS Summit, the Center for African, Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) of O.P. Jindal Global University invited governments, civil society and researchers to participate in a series of events to discuss some of the most pressing topics for the group and the future of development cooperation.

Over the course of the week, the attendees will participate in round tables, talks and workshops that will provide insight for civil society participation in the BRICS Summit, which will take place this year from September 3-5 in Xiamen, China.

Caio Borges, coordinator of the Business and Human Rights program at Conectas, is one of the speakers on the opening panel. He will debate the legacy of the current Chinese presidency of the BRICS and the expectations for the South African presidency that begins in 2018 with a 10-year term, and how academia and think tanks can support this process. Sharing the panel with him will be Jiejin Zhu of the Center for BRICS Studies at Fudan University and Faith Mabera of the Institute for Global Dialogue.

On August 22 and 23, Conectas, in partnership with CALACS and Fudan University, will stage a workshop with representatives of civil society, universities and think tanks to present the partial results of a research project developed by the organizations.

The main goals of the research are to reach an agreement on the definition of sustainable infrastructure, propose criteria for measuring the sustainability of the NDB’s projects and present possible forms of engagement between civil society and the bank.

The organizations will use this event to gather impressions from the participants in order to streamline the proposals that will be presented ahead of the BRICS Summit, which will take place in Xiamen two weeks from now.