The IBSA Dialogue Forum brings together Brazil, India, and South Africa as a South-South cooperation grouping committed to sustainable development. It was formally established in 2003 with the Brasilia Declaration. The three countries work together on political issues, concrete collaborative projects through 14 working groups, and assisting other developing countries through the IBSA Fund. Key aspects of IBSA include regular foreign minister meetings, five leader summits held so far, and over $25 million contributed to development projects in other countries through the IBSA Fund.
2. IBSA Dialogue Forum
The IBSA Dialogue Forum brings together three
large pluralistic, multicultural and multiracial
societies from three continents as a purely South-
South grouping of like-minded countries,
committed to inclusive sustainable development, in
pursuit of the well-being for their peoples and
those of the developing world. IBSA was
formalized and launched through the adoption of
the Brasilia Declaration on 6 June 2003.
3. How IBSA Formed
The idea of establishing IBSA was discussed at a
meeting between the then Prime Minister of India
and the then Presidents of Brazil and South Africa
in Evian on 2 June 2003 on the margins of the G-8
Summit. The grouping was formalized and named
the IBSA Dialogue Forum when the Foreign
Ministers of the three countries met in Brasilia on
6 June 2003 and issued the Brasilia Declaration.
5. Objectives
To promote South-South cooperation
Facilitate the trilateral exchange of information,
technologies and skills
Promotes the international poverty
Alleviation and social development
To promote cooperation in broad range of areas
such as:- Agriculture, Global Warming, Culture,
Defense, Education, energy, health, information
society etc.
6. The Three Fronts of IBSA
First Front
To act as a forum for consultation and
coordination on global and regional political
issues
To Fight Terrorism
To Reduce Global Warming
7. Second Front
Trilateral collaboration on concrete areas/projects,
through fourteen working groups and seven People-
to-People Forums
Third Front
Assisting other developing countries by taking up
their projects through IBSA Fund.
8. Organizational Structure
Joint Working groups :-
There are 14 joint working groups:-
1) Agriculture
2) Culture
3) Defense
4) Education
5) Energy
6) Environment
7) Health
8) Human Settlements
9) Transport and Infrastructure
10) Public Administration
11) Revenue Administration
12) Science and Technology and
Information Society
13) Social Development
14) Trade and Investment and
Tourism
9. People-to-People Fora
There are seven People-to-People Forums under IBSA:-
1. Academic Forum
2. Business Forum
3. Tri-Nation Summit on Small Business
4. Editors Forum
5. Local Governance Forum
6. Parliamentary Forum
7. Womens Forum
10. Focal Points
Senior Officials from the Foreign Offices of the
three countries dealing with IBSA are the
designated Focal Points; Secretary , assisted by
Joint Secretary , Ministry of External Affairs, is
the IBSA Focal Point for India. Focal Points
meet once a year to discuss the
progress.
11. Trilateral Commission
The Brasilia Declaration established a Trilateral
Commission at the level of Foreign Ministers.
The Commission meets regularly; the first
meeting of the Trilateral Commission was held
in New Delhi on 4 - 5 March 2004. Foreign
Ministers meet regularly before every IBSA
Summit. Here is the list of all the trilateral
meetings that has happened so far:-
12. 1st: March 5th, 2004, in New Delhi;
2nd: March 3rd, 2005, in Cape Town;
3rd: March 30th, 2006, in Rio de Janeiro;
4th: July 16th and 17th, 2007, in New
Delhi;
5th: May 11th, 2008,in Somerset West;
6th: August 31st to September 1st, 2009,
in Bras鱈lia;
7th: March 8th, 2011, in New Delhi
14. Summits
5 summits have been held so far
1. In Brasilia on 13 September 2006
2. In South Africa on 17 October 2007
3. In New Delhi on 15 October 2008
4. In Brasilia on 15 April 2010
5. In Pretoria on 18 October 2011
The 6th summit was scheduled in New Delhi,
India on 16 May 2013 but was cancelled and
now the 7th summit is planned in 2017 in
India.
15. IBSA Fund
The IBSA Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation
(IBSA Fund) was established in March 2004 and became
operational in 2006. It was established to help the other
developing countries. Each IBSA country contributes U$
1 million per year to the Fund. To date, the IBSA Fund
has collected US$ 25 million and assigned US$ 21
million to projects in several countries. A total of 8
projects in six countries have been completed by the
efforts of IBSA Fund and there are eleven ongoing
projects in eight countries (Cape Verde, Cambodia,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Laos, Palestine, Sudan and
Vietnam).
At first the projects requested by different countries are
reviewed and evaluated by the IBSA Board Of Directors
on the following criteria :-
16. Reduction of poverty and hunger;
National ownership and leadership;
South-South cooperation;
Use of IBSA country capacities;
Strengthening local capacity;
Ownership;
Sustainability;
Identifiable impact;
Innovation
Other Criteria:
Timeframe
Project size
17. Agreements and Memorandum Of
Understanding(MoUs)
Three Agreements and 17 MoUs have been
signed for pursuing sectoral cooperation among
IBSA countries.
18. Achievements
In 2006, the IBSA Fund received the South-South
Cooperation Award for Partnership from the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP).
In 2010, the Millennium Development Goals Awards,
granted by the NGO Millennium Development Goals
Awards Committee.
In 2012, the IBSA Fund was awarded the "South-
South and Triangular Cooperation Champions
Award", from the United Nations Office for South-
South Cooperation (UNOSSC).
IBSA celebrated its 10th year anniversary in 2013.
Up to the date IBSA has done trade worth of US$ 23
Billion and their next target is US$ 25 Billion in year.