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The Joint Statement by the Foreign Ministers of China and Russia on Certain Aspects of Global Governance in Modern Conditions of 23 March 2021 calls for "the establishment of a fairer, more democratic and rational multipolar world order." The paper inquires how constitutional theories of international organisations have in the past and present sought to contribute to world order. It identifies three waves of such theory since the 1960s. Looking in more detail at the ongoing third wave, it identifies and seeks to pull out further a constitutional model which upscales the proto-democratic practices in international organisations by strengthening forums for participation and contestation, which rectifies to the north-south imbalance inter alia rooted in the colonial heritage by involving more actors from the global south, and which tackles the global social question upfront. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a neo-classical aggregate production and Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) modeling framework, the paper attempts to explore the relationship between disaggregated energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions in case of five emerging market economies-Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa (BRICS) over the period 1992 to 2016. The study applied the robust unit root, cointegration, and long-run elasticity estimation methods like Pooled Mean Group and differenced panel generalized method of moments for empirical exercise. Having detected the panel heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence, the cointegration tests documented the evidence of a long-run association among the variables. In the long-run, capital, labor, and non-renewable energy consumption are found to affect the economic growth positively. On the contrary, the impact of renewable energy consumption on the economic growth is found be positive but statistically insignificant. Moreover, population, per-capita income, and non-renewable energy consumption are found to increase the emissions whereas renewable energy consumption decreases them. Therefore, along with a proper emissions controls, BRICS countries should design and implement effective support policies so as to ensure the economic growth along with environmental sustainability.

This paper examines five issues: 1) Recent performance of developing countries in terms of growth, investment and integration with the world economy; 2) The impact of the crisis on these economies; 3) The response of policy makers in these economies to mitigate the adverse impact, in particular, the nature of the stimulus packages implemented in these economies; 4) The role developing countries can play in the recovery of the world economy; and 5) The role of China in the recovery, and, in particular, how to deal with the bilateral imbalance between the US and China. Special attention is paid to the behaviour of the economies of the developing country members of the G20 (DG20).1 Finally, the paper discusses what the crisis has revealed about the interests of Russia, India and China in the world economy and consequently a possible strategy for the G20 which would serve their interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Projections for the global economy frequently center on the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. As futurists and economists alike define and re-define both formal and informal coalitions (for example, by broadening the R in BRIC to include all Eastern European economies or instead re-directing the discussion to G-8 countries or to World Trade Organization members), the education profiles of the individual nations sometimes resemble economic indicators: what is imported, what is exported, and what is the potential for expansion. Higher education, and specifically distance learning (the Clicks element of this paper), can already be charted in these terms for some nations. This paper describes the current role of distance learning in countries described as growing economies and proposes a typology for describing change as additional data become available. The paper informs readers of global developments in distance education, using the BRIC nations as examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The greening of the Earth over the last decades is predominantly indicated by the enhancements of leaf area index (LAI). Quantifying the relative contribution of multiple determinants, especially changes in climate and in land management changes (LMC), remains an arduous challenge. To solve this problem, we develop a simple yet novel data‐driven method, called the Paired Land Use Experiment (PLUE), for mesoscale analysis. Using PLUE, we analyze vegetation development of the Sanjiang Plain, a transboundary plain between China and Russia, with roughly homogeneous climate but with distinct land management practices across the border‐intensified agricultural development on China side (CNSP) versus largely little‐disturbed natural vegetation on Russia side (RUSP). Both CNSP and RUSP LAI show significant trends (p < 0.05), with the annual variability reaching values of 9.8 × 10−3 yr−1 and 11.3 × 10−3 yr−1, respectively. However, in CNSP, the LAI increase is concentrated in the middle of the year, especially in five 8‐day periods from 26 June to 28 July. During this period, the LAI trend of CNSP is much higher than that of RUSP, at 92.7 × 10−3 yr−1 (p < 0.01) and 43.8 × 10−3 yr−1 (p < 0.01), respectively. Meanwhile, LAI decreased in CNSP at the begging and end of the growing season. The results show that different LMC practices lead to notably different seasonal variability in vegetation changes. The PLUE method offers a new potential tool in driver identification of vegetation greenness change based on observations. We argue for the necessity of parameterizing these different LMC in Earth system models. Plain Language Summary: The greening of the world has been widely reported. However, quantifying the relative contribution of the drivers, including climate change and land management changes is still challenging. To overcome current limitations of modeling and observation based statistical analysis, a general "Paired Land Use Experiment (PLUE)" method and a benchmark case is presented. Mesoscale experimental areas could be found, such as the Sanjiang Plain on the China‐Russian border with relatively uniform climate change and typical land management differences. The contribution of land management could be obtained by abstracting the natural variations which is purely driven by the climatic factors. Therefore, using the PLUE method, different land management explains contrasting greening pattern across Russia‐China border. It suggests that this method could be applied on numerous mesoscale regions to stitch together a global scale picture. Key Points: PLUE could identify the drivers of vegetation change based on observationsSeasonal patterns of leaf area index trends in these two conjunctional regions are differentLand management is a driver of the vegetation change in the Sanjiang Plain [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Though extensive studies have been conducted on assessing the predictors of cognitive functioning among older adults in small community-based samples, very few studies have focused on understanding the impact of socioeconomic status (SES), demographic characteristics and other risk factors such as lifestyle and chronic diseases on the cognitive functioning among adults of all ages in a nationally representative population-based sample across low- and middle-income countries. This study, therefore, seeks to evaluate the impact of SES, demographic characteristics and risk factors on the cognitive functioning of adults across all ages in five selected developing countries. Methods: Data from 12,430 observations obtained from the WHO Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) Wave 1; consisting of 2,486 observations each for China, Ghana, India, the Russian Federation, and South Africa, were used for the study. A meta-regression and a five-step hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the data, with cognitive functioning as the dependent variable. Independent variables used in this study include SES; assessed by household income and education, demographic characteristics, other risk factors such as lifestyle, self-reported memory difficulty and chronic diseases. Results: This study found that SES and lifestyle significantly predicted cognitive functioning in all the five selected countries as obtained by the pooled results of the meta-regression analysis. The hierarchical linear regression results also revealed that demographic characteristics such as age, type of residency, and self-reported memory difficulty significantly impact cognitive functioning in China, Ghana, Russia, and South Africa. Conclusion: The findings in this study provide new insights for policymakers, caregivers, parents, and individuals, especially those in developing countries, to implement policies and actions targeted at improving SES and eliminating risk factors associated with cognitive decline, as these measures could help improve the cognitive functioning among their populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To provide experience for formulating prevention and control policies, this study analyzed the effectiveness of the Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) prevention and control policies, and evaluated health equity and epidemic cooperation among BRICS countries. Methods: This study summarized the pandemic prevention and control policies in BRICS countries and evaluated the effectiveness of those policies by extracting COVID-19 related data from official websites. Result: As of May 4, 2021, responding to COVID-19. China adopted containment strategies. China's total confirmed cases (102,560) were stable, without a second pandemic peak, and the total deaths per million (3.37) were much lower than others. India and South Africa who adopted intermediate strategies have similar pandemic curves, total confirmed cases in India (20,664,979) surpassed South Africa (1,586,148) as the highest in five countries, but total deaths per million (163.90) lower than South Africa (919.11). Brazil and Russia adopted mitigation strategies. Total confirmed cases in Brazil (14,856,888) and Russia (4,784,497) continued to increase, and Brazil's total deaths per million (1,936.34) is higher than Russia (751.50) and other countries. Conclusion: This study shows BRICS countries implemented different epidemic interventions. Containment strategy is more effective than intermediate strategy and mitigation strategy in limiting the spread of COVID-19. Especially when a strict containment strategy is implemented in an early stage, but premature relaxation of restrictions may lead to rebounding. It is a good choice to combat COVID-19 by improving the inclusiveness of intervention policies, deepening BRICS epidemic cooperation, and increasing health equities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the argument that the so-called four BRIC or the five BRICS economies can help rescue the global economy from its current crisis. It reviews the arguments for the positive role of these developing economies and then urges a series of reasons for caution about their capacity to act as an independent element in global economic recovery. It also draws attention to the differences between these economies and the need to consider the way that economic issues are related to geo-political considerations in the global system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the current status of the main CCS initiatives in the major emerging economies: China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. This study first covers all six countries as a group and describes their natural resources. The second part of this study embraces each country individually and includes current initiatives and current legal and technological status of CCS. At the end, this study summarizes the main findings in the emerging economies and the potential of including CCS as part of the CDM. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• An overall picture of various environmental footprints of 65 BRI nations is provided. • We trace five categories of trade-embodied resources and emissions across scales. • BRI's total and per capita environmental footprints show high spatial heterogeneity. • BRI as a whole is a net exporter of the trade flows except for virtual water. • The role of nations as exporters/importers varies between the BRI and global scales. Over the past few years, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China has made a notable contribution to the rapid growth of cross-border trade. This however has been accompanied by unexpected burden shifting of resource extractions and environmental emissions to less developed countries. Given that little attention has been paid to the trade-embodied resources and emissions throughout the BRI, this paper, for the first time, accounts for the water, land, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus footprints of 65 BRI nations and traces the flows embodied in international trade between the BRI and remaining 124 economies by employing a global multi-regional input–output model. Overall, distribution of the BRI's environmental footprints shows strong spatial heterogeneity, amongst China, India and Russia have the highest total environmental footprints. Furthermore, reverse patterns of spatial distribution can be observed between the total and per capita footprints of BRI nations. When it comes to the global scale, the BRI as a whole is found to be a net exporter of trade-embodied flows except for virtual water. Remarkably, 29% of the BRI nations experience a role transition in supply chains across scales, either from net exporters on the BRI level to net importers on the global level, or in reverse. Our findings provide a holistic picture of environmental footprints at scales ranging from single nations, regions, BRI, and even globe, highlighting the significance of a global view in finding ways to tackle environmental challenges and fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals throughout the BRI countries by 2030. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite strong advocacy, the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) is ending with most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) no closer to the Sustainable Development Goals target of reducing traffic mortality by half. In contrast, most high-income countries (HICs) have seen large benefits in recent decades from large-scale safety interventions. We aimed to assess how much LMICs would benefit from interventions that address six key risk factors related to helmet use, seatbelt use, speed control, drink driving, and vehicle design for safety of occupants and pedestrians. We use a comparative risk assessment framework to estimate mortality and health loss (disability adjusted life years lost, DALYs) that would be averted if these risks were reduced through intervention. We estimate effects for six countries that span all developing regions: China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Iran, and Russia. We find relatively large benefits (27% reductions in road traffic deaths and DALYs) from speed control in all countries, and about 5%-20% reductions due to other interventions depending on who is at risk in each country. To achieve larger gains, LMICs would need to move beyond simply learning from HICs and undertake new research to address risk factors particularly relevant to their context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The burden of non-communicable diseases has increased rapidly in low- and middle-income countries. Past studies have reported an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and cardio-metabolic risk factors, but most have focused on upper income countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between SES over the life-course and the burden of cardio-metabolic risk factors in middle-income countries.Methods: A total of 38 297 adults from China, Mexico, India, South Africa and Russia were included in this cross-sectional study. Life-course SES was defined based on maternal and participant education, and data on blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), self-reported diabetes and hypertension were obtained by trained interviewers. Descriptive, age standardized and multivariable adjusted analyses were conducted using survey weighted statistical procedures in SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA).Results: Although 14% of men and 12% of women had current hypertension based on blood pressure measurements, only 2% of men and 4% of women were aware of their hypertensive status. Men with stable high life-course SES had higher odds of being overweight/obese (odds ratio OR = 2.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.30-3.10), diabetic (OR = 4.82, 95% CI = 2.07-11.2) and hypertensive based on self-report (OR = 3.42, 95% CI = 1.85-6.32) compared to men of low life-course SES. Among women, the odds of being overweight/obese were significantly higher among women with high life-course SES (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.08-2.08).Conclusions: Higher life-course SES for both men and women was associated with increased odds of overweight/ obesity, and additionally diabetes and hypertension for men in middle income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To assess and compare health system performance across six middle-income countries that are strengthening their health systems in pursuit of universal health coverage. Design Cross-sectional analysis from the World Health Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health, collected between 2007 and 2010. Setting Six middle-income countries: China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Participants Nationally representative sample of adults aged 50 years and older. Main outcome measures We present achievement against key indicators of health system performance across effectiveness, cost, access, patient-centredness and equity domains. Results We found areas of poor performance in prevention and management of chronic conditions, such as hypertension control and cancer screening coverage. We also found that cost remains a barrier to healthcare access in spite of insurance schemes. Finally, we found evidence of disparities across many indicators, particularly in the effectiveness and patient centredness domains. Conclusions These findings identify important focus areas for action and shared learning as these countries move towards achieving universal health coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is uncertain whether the inverse equity hypothesis--the idea that new health interventions are initially primarily accessed by the rich, but that inequalities narrow with diffusion to the poor--holds true for cancer screening in low and middle income countries (LMICs).This study examines the relationship between overall coverage and economic inequalities in coverage of cancer screening in four middle-income countries. Methods: Secondary analyses of cross-sectional data from the WHO study on Global Ageing and Adult Health in China, Mexico, Russia and South Africa (2007–2010). Three regression-based methods were used to measure economic inequalities: (1) Adjusted OR; (2) Relative Index of Inequality (RII); and (3) Slope Index of Inequality. Results: Coverage for breast cancer screening was 10.5% in South Africa, 19.3% in China, 33.8% in Russia and 43% in Mexico, and coverage for cervical cancer screening was 24% in South Africa, 27.2% in China, 63.7% in Mexico and 81.5% in Russia. Economic inequalities in screening participation were substantially lower or non-existent in countries with higher aggregate coverage, for both breast cancer screening (RII: 14.57 in South Africa, 4.90 in China, 2.01 in Mexico, 1.04 in Russia) and cervical cancer screening (RII: 3.60 in China, 2.47 in South Africa, 1.39 in Mexico, 1.12 in Russia). Conclusions: Economic inequalities in breast and cervical cancer screening are low in LMICs with high screening coverage. These findings are consistent with the inverse equity hypothesis and indicate that high levels of equity in cancer screening are feasible even in countries with high income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The goal of this article is to conduct macro-level analysis of human capital (HC) development strategies, pursued by four countries commonly referred to as BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Design/methodology/approach – This analysis is based on comparisons of macro indices of human capital and innovativeness of the economy and a review of related academic literature and government publications. Findings – The study results suggest that in terms of present human capital capacity Russia and Brazil are ahead of China and India. However, during the last decade the governments of the latter two countries have initiated impressive national programs of HC development, which include significant investment and targeted government regulation in such areas as primary and secondary education, vocational education and training, and higher education, especially in science and technology fields. Russia and Brazil have targeted programs in some of the above areas, but lack comprehensive long-term strategies, covering all the above areas and coordinating effort of various agencies and constituencies. Research limitations/implications – It is recommended to expand the scope of analysis to include other fast growing developing economies (e.g. Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey). Originality/value – The article provides, for the first time, a comparison of human capital development indices and strategies of the four largest developing economies. The original feature of the article is a combination of the analysis of macro-level indices with an in-depth analysis of policy documents and academic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that a single group of emerging powers, principally the BRIC states, are reshaping global politics is now prevalent. However, the basis of their newfound power is not well understood. Their influence is primarily a function of their regional clout, and their outsized weight in multilateral institutions; but also because the goals of US policy frequently play to emerging-power advantages. Investigation of how the emerging powers are choosing to wield this influence in the economic, financial, and security realms finds that, although they have some blocking power, the most prevalent strategies thus far have been to bargain hard to protect their own interests and national space, and to balance the growing influence of their BRIC counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]