Social justice, sustainable development and quality of life

Abstract

The chapter on Social Justice, Sustainable Development and Quality of Life recognises BRICS as more than just a 'growth alliance', and sees its efforts as social and political imperatives that influence the broader societies of the five BRICS countries and across the global South. Second, as envisaged in the 2015 BRICS declaration at its meeting in Ufa, Russia, it recognises that cooperation between the five BRICS countries is mutual and premised on a shared and common vision of an alternative world economic and development system that is sensitive to the interests of the South. Therefore, the authors argue, it becomes important that the BRICS nations develop a methodology to uniformly measure their progress over time and a set of development indicators through which such progress can be assessed. Aligned to these development indicators should be a set of well-defined targets that are both unambiguous and measureable towards the attainment of, among others, the 2030 Long Term Strategic ideals. Each BRICS nation should be in a position to annually report its progress against the set indicators and targets.