Jaipur Declaration

•  BRICS Women Parliamentarians forum has unanimously passed the Jaipur Declaration on the concluding day of the Forum’s meeting held in Jaipur.
• The 19-point declaration was adopted at the two-day meeting of BRICS Women Parliamentarians forum held in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
• The meeting was attended by heads and members of delegation from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Main highlights of Jaipur Declaration:

• The Declaration calls upon international financial institutions to extend support to developing and least developed countries and help them gain easier access to new and affordable technologies as envisaged under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.
• The Declaration mentions the need to address climate change and protection of ecological system and forest as well as food security, expeditious parliamentary approval of SDG related legislation and adequate budgetary resources.
• It also emphasizes on plans for incorporating gender concerns and greater involvement of women parliamentarians in integrating citizens in the development process.
• The need to inform and educate citizens about the developmental schemes and institutionalisation of the BRICS Women Parliamentarians’ Forum were also taken up in the declaration which was unanimously adopted.
• Strengthen strategic partnership between members on all three dimensions of sustainable development viz., economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.
• Emphasized on plans for incorporating gender concerns and greater involvement of women parliamentarians in integrating citizens in the development process

About BRICS

• The acronym "BRICs" was initially formulated in 2001 by economist Jim O'Neill, of Goldman Sachs, in a report on growth prospects for the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China – which together represented a significant share of the world's production and population.
• In 2006, the four countries initiated a regular informal diplomatic coordination, with annual meetings of Foreign Ministers at the margins of the General Debate of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
• This successful interaction led to the decision that the dialogue was to be carried out at the level of Heads of State and Government in annual Summits.
• As of the First Summit, held in Yekaterinburg in 2009, the depth and scope of the dialogue among the Members of BRICs – which became BRICS in 2011 with the inclusion of South Africa – was further enhanced.
• After the Yekaterinburg Summit, six annual Summits were held (Brasilia, 2010; Sanya, 2011; New Delhi, 2012; Durban, 2013; Fortaleza, 2014; Ufa, 2015).

By: Vishal