The global commons faces a myriad of increasingly complex, interrelated challenges spanning a range of environmental, security, economic, health and development issues.  Addressing these challenges requires a concerted effort on behalf of the most influential political leaders representing the world’s most significant countries.

Getting traction on these issues thus requires a process of global governance in which these leaders can regularly meet and forge a consensus on how to confront this groundswell of evolving global challenges.

The G20 and BRICS sit at the very epicentre of this important global governance structure, serving as the key plurilateral summit institutions (PSIs) able to confront these critical and complex challenges.

The question of why and how the BRICS and G20 can provide better global governance is essential to understanding the value and prominence of these high-level plurilateral summit institutions. 

This paper argues that in order for these PSIs to govern more effectively, they must forge a consensus and generate concrete commitments, against which they can be effectively evaluated and assessed. Without a scorecard against which to measure their accountability, the issue of their legitimacy as global governance leaders is called into question.

Implicit in this debate is also the question of whether the G20 and BRICS can and should act in cooperation or competition with other international organizations and PSIs. If so, are their chances of enhanced accountability heightened or reduced?  This paper argues that to be effective global governance leaders, the G20 and BRICS can and must work in concert with other key regional, multilateral, and intergovernmental organizations, as well as NGOs, civil society, the business community and thought leaders.  Only through this enhanced level of collaboration and cooperation can the G20 and BRICS generate the level of international support needed to forge their global governance agenda.