PHA-Exchange> Helping the Bottom Billion: Is There a Third Way in the Development Debate?

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) ruglucia at paho.org
 EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org

 *Helping the Bottom Billion: Is There a Third Way in the Development
Debate? *

**

*A review of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and
What Can Be Done About It** *by Paul Collier* *

*Center for Global Development - September 10, 2007*

**

Available at: http://www.cgdev.org/content/general/detail/14379

**

"….Poor countries showing signs of growth such as India and Brazil are well
on their way to pulling themselves out of poverty, but there are a billion
people living in impoverished countries showing no signs of economic growth.
Paul Collier's new book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are
Failing and What Can Be Done About It, argues that many developing countries
are doing just fine and that the real development challenge is the 58
countries that are economically stagnant and caught in one or more "traps":
armed conflict, natural resource dependence, poor governance, and geographic
isolation. In a review of the book published in Foreign Affairs, CGD
research fellow Michael Clemens explores whether or not Collier's proposed
solutions constitute a practical middle path between William Easterly's
development pessimism and Jeffrey Sach's development boosterism.

The centerpiece of Collier's argument is his plan for the G-8, comprised of
four main elements: aid for post-conflict reconstruction and regional
infrastructure development, five international charters (addressing natural
resources, democracy, budget transparency, post-conflict politics, and
international investment), a trade policy to help bottom-billion countries
compete with Asia, and selective and very limited military interventions.

Clemens, an economic historian, ends his discussion of Collier's proposals
with a cautionary note: "Helping the bottom billion will be a very slow job
for generations, not the product of media- or summit-friendly plans to end
poverty in ten or 20 years. It will require long-term, opportunistic, and
humble engagement, much of it through public action—built on a willingness
to let ineffective interventions die and on a sophisticated appreciation of
the stupendous complexity of functioning economies. The grievous truth is
that although a range of public actions can and should help many people,
most of the bottom billion will not—and cannot—be freed from poverty in our
lifetimes."

**

*Smart Samaritans*

Michael A. Clemens is a Research Fellow at the Center for Global Development
and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University.

*From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2007*

*The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be
Done About It*. . By Paul Collier: Oxford University Press, 2007, 205 pp

URL:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901fareviewessay86509/michael-a-clemens/smart-samaritans.html


Summary:  Paul Collier offers strong recommendations for helping "the bottom
billion" -- those living in poor countries caught in growth traps. But he
cannot overcome a basic problem: how to create growth where no functioning
economy exists.
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