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This is not to say that there are no successful experiences of cooperation and 

sharing. The creation of the framework for BRICS cooperation on population matters 

was successfully concluded at the 2014 BRICS Inaugural Seminar of Officials held 

in South Africa (Partners in Population and Development and Experts on Population 

Matters, 2014). The main objective of the inaugural seminar was to exchange 

knowledge and experiences on each country’s population trends, dynamics and 

policy responses. The framework, based on the ICPD Programme of Action, 

agreed to collaboration through dialogue, cooperation, sharing of experiences and 

capacity-building on population-related issues of mutual concern to member states 

(Dlamini, 2014).

The document covers a wide range of issues including, “gender and women’s 

rights; sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights; demographic 

transition and post-transition challenges, including population structure change, 

population ageing and mortality reduction/increasing life expectancy and social 

integration of migrant farmers during rapid urbanization; information on population 

and health, including data collection and utilization, and sharing information and 

experience on improving the equity and quality of health of women and children” 

(Department of Social Development, South Africa, n.d.).

The Fortaleza Declaration (July 2014, Brazil) reinforced BRICS commitment to 

collaborating on issues of social protection and labour. This commitment was further 

endorsed by the BRICS Trade Union Forum (2014), where member unions agreed 

to: 

“

1. Work on the basis of the standards and principles of the International Labour 

Organization (ILO) to promote Decent Work, boost employment, secure a universal 

social protection floor and promote the transition from the informal to the formal 

economy; 2. Defend the legitimate rights of the working class within a progressive social 

dimension; 3. Promote a development agenda that puts industrialization, environmental 

justice and human progress for equitable and fair growth models at the center of our 

common commitments; 4. Establish a dialogue and cooperation to promote peace, 

security, human rights and global sustainable development; 5. Strengthen the social 

protection for young people and women.”

2.2 Education

With regard to higher education, in India the challenge is particularly difficult due 

to the need to widen access to institutions of higher education while ensuring that 

such institutions are affordable (Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development, 

2013). Russia is experiencing a decline in demand for tertiary education. To address 

this decline in student enrolment, the country decided to merge or close some 

tertiary institutions (Nikolaev and Chugunov, 2012; Russian Federation, 2014). 

In South Africa the challenges experienced relate to high drop-out rates and low 

graduation rates of previously disadvantaged population groups. This is attributed 

to an inadequate level of preparedness of children leaving secondary school (HESA, 

2009). In Brazil the primary challenge is to increase university enrolment. 

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The UNESCO Institute for Statistics database identifies the highest level of 

education achieved by persons aged 25 years and older. The results of this survey 

place the differences related to the socio-economic position of some of the BRICS 

nations with available data in perspective (figure 5). 

FIGURE 5

Population (aged 25+) by highest level of education

(In %)

9.5

4.0

0.6

12.0

14.2

43.0

8.9

13.6

15.1

6.6

7.0

6.7

5.2

5.4

7.0

21.9

28.1

5.5

5.7

11.5

3.6

60.1

6.4

27.9

13.5

16.5

47.2

0,00

20,00

40,00

60,00

80,00

100,00

120,00

Brazil 2011

China 2010

Russian Federation 2010 South Africa  2012

%

Incomplete primary (%)

Lower secondary (ISCED 2) (%)

No schooling (%)

Post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED 4) (%)

Primary (ISCED 1) (%)

Tertiary (ISCED 5-6) (%)

Upper secondary (ISCED 3) (%)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Student repetition and high drop-out rates are worrying trends that hinder 

efforts to achieve universal primary education. MDG 2.2 identifies the proportion 

of pupils who start grade 1 and actually reach the last grade of primary school. 

This indicator is calculated using enrolment and repetition data for two consecutive 

years. Based on this method, India is found to perform poorly, as data collected 

in 2001 highlight a 61.4 per cent retention rate.

TABLE 10

Percentage of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary education

Country

Latest year of data

Both sexes

Boys

Girls

Parity index

Brazil

2005

88.7

-

-

-

China

2014

92.6

-

-

-

India

2001

61.4

59.7

63.5

1.1

Russian Federation

2011

96.6

89.8

92.6

1.0

South Africa

2003

77.0

75.0

79.1

1.1

Sources:  United Nations Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Millennium Development Goals (2014). Indicators and Millennium 

Development Goal Indicators Database.

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The difference in interpretation of the definition of primary education may 

explain the low values of primary schooling suggested by the UNESCO data. 

In Brazil in 2011 approximately 45 per cent of the population above the age of 25 

had either completed primary education, had started but not completed primary 

school or had not gone to school at all. Around 39 per cent of the population had 

either completed upper secondary schooling (27.9 per cent) or some form of tertiary 

education (11.4 per cent). In the Russian Federation in 2010, approximately 

82 per cent of the population had completed either upper secondary schooling 

(16.5 per cent), a post-secondary but non-tertiary education (5.4 per cent) or 

some form of tertiary education (60.1 per cent).

In China in 2010, approximately 38 per cent of the population had either 

completed primary schooling, had started but not completed primary school or had 

not gone to school at all. About 22 per cent of the population had either completed 

upper secondary schooling (13.5 per cent), a post-secondary but non-tertiary 

education (5.2 per cent) or some form of tertiary education (3.6 per cent). 

(UN Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Millennium Development Goals, 2014)

In 2012 in South Africa approximately 24 per cent of the population had 

either completed primary schooling, had started but not completed primary 

school, or had not gone to school at all. Around 47 per cent of the population 

had completed upper secondary school, but only an additional 13 per cent had 

completed tertiary education or a post-secondary/non-tertiary level of schooling. 

This indicator may provide a clue for understanding the difficulties experienced 

in accessing higher education in the BRICS countries.

Furthermore, BRICS members are encountering a large-scale, long-term 

brain drain – through educational emigration and the direct outflow of qualified 

professionals – leading to a significant loss of both highly qualified professionals 

and financial losses derived from the expenses incurred on their education in 

their home countries. Simultaneously, India and China have developed policies 

and actively worked on both upholding ties with their elite diasporas abroad and 

bringing some of them back home.

2.3 Health

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 63 per cent of all global deaths 

and 80 per cent of deaths in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, 2010). 

BRICS Health Ministers have tasked a group to focus on NCDs. Table 11 presents 

premature mortality (death before age 70) due to NCDs and associated age-adjusted 

mortality rates in BRICS countries in 2008. Russians are comparatively more predisposed 

to die before the age of 70 due to NCDs than other BRICS residents, whilst Brazilians 

are less likely to die from NCDs. 

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TABLE 11

Non-communicable diseases deaths before age 70 (%) and age-adjusted death rates, 
BRICS, 2008

Country

Males (%)

Females (%)

Age-adjusted death rates

Data year

Brazil

52.3

42.2

614.0

2008

Russia

55.0

25.4

1108.6

2007

India

61.8

55.0

781.7

2003

China

43.9

32.0

665.2

2006

South Africa 

69.0

53.7

733.7

2007

Source: World Health Organization (2011). Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2010. Geneva, WHO.

There are major gender disparities in premature mortality, as males are more likely 

than females to die from NCDs. The gender disparities are wide (a 30 percentage point 

difference) in the Russian Federation, followed by South Africa with a 15 percentage 

point difference, China (12 percentage points), Brazil (10) and India with the least 

disparity at 7 percentage points (BRICS, 2013a). 

BRICS countries have committed to introduce policies and programmes 

that aim to reduce the risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical 

inactivity, obesity and harmful alcohol consumption that are associated with 

cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. In this regard all five BRICS countries 

have signed, ratified or endorsed the 2012 WHO Framework Convention on 

Tobacco Control (FCTC), thus committing to cooperation to introduce policies 

to counter the impact of tobacco advertising and labelling and sales of tobacco 

products (WHO, 2008). However, with respect to implementation of the FCTC, 

BRICS countries have not all met the deadlines with respect to compliance with 

packaging requirements (Article 11) or a ban on advertising domestically and in 

cross-border areas (Article 13) (WHO, 2012). 

Levels of physical activity for maintaining a healthy lifestyle show marked 

differences among BRICS countries. Based on the WHO estimates, Brazil and 

South Africa appear to have higher rates of physical inactivity among males 

and females aged 15 years or older compared to the other three BRICS countries. 

Unhealthy diets, involving higher consumption of fats and salt and lower 

consumption of fruits and vegetables, are related to several outcomes: hypertension, 

a risk factor for heart diseases, is associated with high consumption of salt; 

obesity, a risk factor for diabetes, is associated with high consumption of saturated 

fats and trans-fats; and inadequate consumption of vegetables and fruits is 

associated with cardiovascular diseases, stomach and colorectal cancer (WHO, 2011). 

Currently, data are not collected uniformly across BRICS countries on this 

indicator of unhealthy diets. 

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Food fortification is the addition of vitamins and minerals to foods while 

they are being processed (WHO, 2006). A well-designed fortification programme 

includes foods that are commonly consumed and does not rely on the population 

eating more of any specific food. In August 2014, 80 countries mandated the 

fortification of wheat flour, 12 mandated the fortification of maize flour, and 5 

mandated the fortification of rice (FFI, 2014a). All BRICS countries have policies 

supporting food fortification. Both Brazil (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, 

2002) and South Africa (R504, 2013) have legislation that mandates fortification 

of wheat flour and maize flour. The former Soviet Union used to fortify wheat flour 

(Tazhibayev, 2008). The Russian Federation (Jackson, 2002), India (Rah, 2013), 

China (Zhao, 2004) and South Africa fortified salt for human consumption with 

iodine in 1995 (Jooste, Weight & Lombard, 2001). Lessons can be learned from 

the Brazilian and South African experiences with fortification that can be extended 

to Russia, India and China. 

Harmful alcohol consumption is associated with NCDs – specifically, cancers, 

cardiovascular diseases and liver cirrhosis. In view of the absence of good and 

comparable data, WHO projected estimates of adult per capita consumption of 

pure alcohol and identified that China and India have a much lower estimated 

rate of consumption of pure alcohol (2.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively) 

than South Africa, Brazil and the Russian Federation (10.6 per cent, 10.8 per cent 

and 16.2 per cent, respectively) (WHO, 2010).

HIV/AIDS is a major public health and social problem in BRICS countries, 

requiring them to share experiences and coordinate approaches, especially since 

there is increasing movement of people between them. Although BRICS countries 

differ significantly in the magnitude of the problem, each one of them has a sizeable 

population living with HIV (see table 12). Among the BRICS countries, South 

Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV.

TABLE 12

Magnitude of HIV/AIDS pandemic in BRICS countries for adults 15-49 years (2012)

Country

HIV prevalence (%)

People living with HIV

Brazil

0.5

490,000

Russia

1.1

1,300,000

India

0.3

2,088,642

China

1

0.1

780,000

South Africa

12.2

6,400,000

Total

2.8

11,058,000

Source: WHO (2013). 
Note: 

1

2011.