Paul Collier (2008): "the Bottom Billion", Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What can be Done About It

Paul Collier (2008) "The Bottom Billion", Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. Oxford University Press, New Delhi Price: 745/- Pages: 224 The Third World has shrunk. For forty years, the development has been a rich world of one billion people facing a poor world of five billion people. The Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations, which are designed to track development progress through 2015, encapsulate this thinking. By 2015, however, it will be apparent that this way of conceptualizing development has become outdated. Out of the five billion, about 80 per cent live in countries that are indeed developing. The real challenge of development is that there is a group of countries at the bottom that are falling behind and often falling apart. The countries at the bottom coexist with the 21st century but their reality is the 14th century. Civil war, plague and ignorance are their identities. They are concentrated in Africa and Central Asia. This problem matters, and not just to the billion people who are living and dying in 14th century conditions. It matters to everyone. The 21st century world of material comforts, global travel and economic dependence will become vulnerable to large population of the world.