Development
This topic speaks about the world development, what it is and how it relates to us
Bottom billion
Paul Collier, in his book “Bottom billion” tries to explain, why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it.
According to Paul Collier, professor of Economics at Oxford University, some countries or regions are not able to grow, because of traps, they are in:
The conflict trap
The first of the four traps is conflict. of those in the poorest billion of the world’s population are either involved in or recovering from civil war. In the fight against poverty, civil war creates a vicious circle – war causes poverty, and low income contributes to tension. Low growth means high unemployment and thus plenty of angry young men ready to fight. Conflict then destroys infrastructure and scares away investors, leaving even fewer opportunities. Building peace has to be a major part of solving poverty.
Landlocked with bad neighbors
A second trap is geographical – the problem of being landlocked with bad neighbors. of the bottom billion live in landlocked countries, and these pose a real challenge to development. Being landlocked doesn’t have to be a disaster, as long as your neighbors have decent infrastructure and allow you to use their ports. Collier gives the example of , who can trade through Italy or Germany. If your neighbors don’t like you, or if they are basket-case countries, there is no way you can export. Compare Switzerland with Uganda, which shares borders with , South Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Congo, and .
The natural resource trap
Another poverty trap is natural resources. It sounds a little paradoxical to suggest that natural resource wealth is a factor in poverty, but you only have to consider that South Sudan, , and all have oil to see how this plays out. It’s rare for natural resource wealth to come back to the people. Sometimes this is simply because the revenues end up in a foreign bank accounts of the elite, but the big problem is this: the rush of investment into one sector draws attention, capital, and skills from all the other sectors of the economy.
Bad governance in small country
Three quarters of the bottom billion live in countries that are either failing, or recently were failed states – countries such as , Haiti, , or Zimbabwe. While governments do not function, or exist only to benefit themselves, development is ultimately impossible. It’s difficult to price these things, but Paul Collier estimates that each failed state costs the global economy $100 billion, and since the costs of intervening to fix a failed state would usually be less, he makes a case for more military intervention. That’s going to upset a lot of people, but it doesn’t have to mean or Iraq. What if an international presence had forcibly removed Mugabe when he lost the election recently?