Cooperação sanitária Brasil-Brics: complementação econômica ou estruturação de sistemas de saúde?

Abstract

The present research is part of a research agenda developed at UFSM that empirically investigates health cooperation among developing countries to assess the extent to which and how it can be an instrument for the realization of human rights. In this study, the aim is to understand South-South cooperation in the health sector through the analysis and interpretation of international agreements signed between Brazil and the other countries that make up BRICS - Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The objective is to examine the profile of this cooperation in order to determine if it follows a larger pattern of Brazilian health cooperation already identified by other academic studies, such as structural and emergency health cooperation, as both models are observed in Brazil's cooperation with countries in Latin America and Africa. In this sense, the present investigation questions the agenda to which Brazil-BRICS health cooperation corresponds, namely, whether it follows a logic of institutional strengthening characteristic of structural health cooperation or if it follows more traditional logics of medical supply transfer and economic complementation. To this end, a quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted based on documentary research to locate the Brazilian approach to the sector. Two questions guide this research: does the formalization of the BRICS group catalyze health cooperation with the involved countries, transcending the trade-oriented agenda for which it was created? Does Brazil-BRICS health cooperation only involve economic complementation or does it invest in the structuring of health systems? The results of this investigation suggest that the bilateral dimension of health cooperation between these countries does not catalyze health cooperation, as it is incipient and scattered in terms of the issues addressed by the agreements. Additionally, the results indicate a mixed agenda of health cooperation, encompassing elements of emergency cooperation and structural cooperation.