BRICS’ role in global health and the promotion of universal health coverage: the debate continues

The acronym BRIC was coined by Jim O’Neill, a senior executive at Goldman Sachs, to denote four emerging national economies: Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and China. Although BRICS and other multinational groupings may be useful to policy-makers involved in the development of some foreign policies, it remains unclear if such groupings have a role in the study and development of global health policy. We examine the debate around this issue and focus on BRICS’ potential role in the promotion of universal health coverage – an “umbrella” goal for health in the post-2015 development framework. We do not argue that BRICS has no value as a grouping. The constituent nations do have some things in common: they are all large, populous, diverse countries with many different ethnic, social and – in some cases – religious divisions. They share these characteristics with some other countries, such as Indonesia, Nigeria, Indonesia and Pakistan, that have made less progress toward universal health coverage but may be able to learn from BRICS’ experiences. There is no doubt that, in the promotion of universal health coverage, there is a need for collaboration and shared learning. However, a grouping of countries that may make sense in the coordination of global macroeconomic policy cannot be assumed to be relevant in the development of any global health policy.