New Delhi, September 11, 2026.

Binding Declaration language and institutional mechanisms areessential for advancing women’s leadership across BRICS+ nations, a high-level panel of women leaders concluded at the BRICS+ Dialogue 2026, organized by the BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a not-for-profit promoting trade and commerce in the BRICS+ and partner nations ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit. Key leaders from across the bloc's Women's Business Alliance (WBA) chapters and institutional community gathered for the session, titled ‘From Margins to Mainstream: Institutionalising Women’s Leadership in BRICS Innovation Ecosystems’.

The panel brought together voices from Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Iran and India, reflecting the full geographic range of the BRICS bloc. The panelists included Ms. Ruby Sinha, President, BRICS CCI WE (Women Empowerment) and Programme Lead, WISE,Mr. Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Former BRICS Sherpa & Secretary to the Government of India, HRH Lebogang Zulu, National Chairperson, BRICS Women's Business Alliance – South Africa, Ms. Monica Monteiro, Chairperson, BRICS WBA Brazil Chapter, Ms. Shadi Sedghinejad,Member, Inclusive Economy Working Group, BRICS WBA- Iran and Ms. Yana Oseyeva,Director for International Projects, Russian Education Agency (REA).

Opening the session, Ms. Ruby Sinhahighlighted the Global Women Leadership Programme (GWLP), a women leadership mentoring initiative now in its third edition, and theWomen in Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship (WISE) initiative, launched during the BRICS Women Business Alliance Annual Plenary Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2025, and carried forward with meaningful momentum through the year. The WISE initiative is built on three core pillars – Innovation & Collaboration, Access to Funding, and Policy Advocacy – and is directed at enabling women to assume leadership positions in STEM and new-age technologies, including artificial intelligence, across the BRICS+ community.

Ms. Ruby Sinha, President, BRICS CCI WE (Women Empowerment) and Programme Lead, WISEnoted, “Across the BRICS bloc, women are increasingly visible as entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators, yet leadership in the institutions that shape innovation and funding bodies, remains disproportionately male. For instance, according to reports, women-led startups receive less than 2% of global venture capital funding, and the people making those funding calls are themselves skewed: women hold approximately 15.4% of partner or decision-making roles at VC firms, and only 4.9% of VC firms have a majority of female partners.

The shift from “margins to mainstream” requires a focused institutional design not just visibility. We got the first-ever Joint Statement under the BRICS Women Track this year in Kochi which is a big accomplishment. What hasn't happened yet is the harder step: giving these commitments continuity beyond a single Chairship. That's the gap initiatives like WISEare designed to close — a named, standing initiative that carries forward with clear real resourcing and accountability behind it,’’ she added.

Mr. Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Former BRICS Sherpa & Secretary to the Government of India, said, “What we need to do is push and press for leadership positions (for women), because BRICS from the beginning has been a pragmatic, project-oriented process built on sectors of excellence, joint programmes and, of course, the New Development Bank. If you look across BRICS countries, you find a very significant proportion of women's representation in technology, innovation and the creative industries. But in some of our societies we still have a deficit in education, and women in the less-privileged segments of society are often less empowered. We've established a practice where the Summit is addressed by different groups, so the important and prominent role women play is fully recognised at the Summit level itself. But we still have some more bridges to cross.”

HRH Lebogang Zulu, National Chairperson, BRICS Women's Business Alliance – South Africa linked that gap directly to the BRICS Women Advancement Fund, first endorsed by BRICS heads of state during South Africa's 2023 presidency, and now the core deliverable of the WBA's 2026 presidency, “We've got a database of over 100,000 startup businesses through the BRICS Women’s Startups Contest — brilliant solutions that can be scaled across BRICS countries — but there's no platform enabling them to engage with VCs, to engage with markets, to engage with buyers. That is our next frontier…The core deliverable of the 2026 WBA presidency is driving a BRICS Women Advancement Fund framework — one that makes sense to us and also speaks the NDB's language. This is not a one-day activity, and it's not going to be a walk in the park. But as my country's first Black president, Nelson Mandela, said: it always seems impossible until it is done.’’

Ms. Monica Monteiro, Chairperson, BRICS WBA Brazil Chapterpointed to consumer and purchasing power as an underused lever — and to a shift in her Chapter's own approach, from relationship-building to delivery.“We have the power of the choice. We have women who already have money in the bank, and when we go to the supermarket, we can choose a company that respects women over one that doesn't. That's economic power. We're going to choose the companies and the products we want, and that's going to move the economy. We're going to change the economy in the world because we have the choice,’’Ms Monteiro added. She also pointed to a roughly 25% year-on-year rise in India–Brazil trade, and to a wider delegation in New Delhi covering agribusiness, infrastructure and technology, alongside tourism, stating that cultural familiarity is a precondition for commercial partnership.

Ms. Shadi Sedghinejad, Member, Inclusive Economy Working Group, BRICS WBA- Iranadded, “We are part of one family. If we work together – collaborating in a systematic way and more action-oriented, that gets us to a place where we can get funding, and where we can collaborate to get a bigger market share, rather than competing against each other. There are hiccups, but we have to go beyond that and work together to overcome the challenges — and while some of the challenges we face in Iran may be bigger than what other BRICS family members are dealing with right now, I'm sure there are other challenges everyone is going through that are common across BRICS.”

Ms. Yana Oseyeva, Director for International Projects, Russian Education Agency (REA), argued for BRICS-level standardization – a common due-diligence and procurement standards, and an independent accreditation and ranking system. Ms Yana added,“India produces more female engineers than many countries combined. But roughly half of female graduates are not in the industry after graduation. That means we need to do something while women are still in university, not after. We need mandatory courses taught by people from industry, from the very first year. And from the very first year, we need to build artificial intelligence into every course for women too, because professions that used to be considered male-oriented can now be done by women, especially with AI. There should be an accreditation system for recognisingprogrammes and degrees across BRICS+ countries.”

Closing the session, the panel highlighted the need to build shared platforms — knowledge exchange, cross border business mechanisms, entrepreneurship financing and digital access.