The most recent BRICS member, officially joining in 2011, South Africa has since become a core component of the grouping and keen to establish itself as a rising power. The Rising Powers in International Development Programme is looking at the growing role of South Africa in the field of international development cooperation.
Hosting the BRICS Summit in March 2013, South Africa has posited itself as the ‘gateway to Africa’ and a key conduit for investment and involvement in the continent, recently launching the South African Development Partnership Agency.
Yet while South Africa’s status as a development partner for other African countries is growing, some have suggested that South Africa is finding it difficult to sharpen its profile as a development partner in light of persisting internal challenges, especially very high levels of inequality.
Building on a key series of RPID events in South Africa immediately preceding the BRICS Summit in 2013, the RPID programme is led by a flagship ‘State of the Debate’ study, which analyses South Africa’s domestic policy debate on international development cooperation.
Image credit: Graeme Williams / Panos
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