‘BRICS without straw’? A systematic literature review of newly emerging economies’ influence in global health

Table 3 Selected data on BRICS countries material contribution to international health

	Brazil	Russia	India	China	South Africa
Year foreign assistance programs started [14]	1960	1955	1964	1950	1968
Foreign Aid Focus [14]	Health; Education; Agriculture	Health; Education; Food Security	Infrastructure; Information technology; Training and Capacity building	Infrastructure; Industrial development; Energy resources development	Peacekeeping; Democracy promotion
Foreign ‘aid’ $US million (last year available) [22]	362 (2009)	472.3 (2010)	639.1 (2010)	2010.6 (2010)	98.4 (2010)
Health component as % of foreign ‘aid’ (last year/period available)*	16.6% (not specified at source) [23]	25% (2006–10) [8]	Not available	Not available**	Not available***
Preferred channel for health ‘aid’ [14]	Trilateral	Multilateral	Primarily bilateral	Primarily bilateral	Bilateral

* Each of the BRICS countries has its own preferred lexicon to describe its international ‘aid’ (e.g. Brazil – ‘international cooperation’; Russia – ‘foreign assistance’; India – ‘demand-driven’).
** Estimated health assistance to Africa 2007–11 was $US 757 m [14], page 63.
*** The Mbeki administration gave US$10 million to the Global Fund between 2003–2007 and in 2006 pledged US$20 million to the GAVI Alliance for a 20 year period [14] page 75.

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