Book Review: The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier (Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About it).

The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier (Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About it).
All emotions and prejudice aside!!! This book is a honest look at the problem of debilitating poverty.... Everyone aspiring to be involved in any development work should read it, preferably without arguing (at least at first).
Paul shows that poverty is a Trap, and goes on to identify 4 poverty traps including : 1. The Conflict Trap; 2. The Natural Resource Trap ; 3. The Landlocked with bad neighbor Trap; and The Bad Governance Trap.
My country, the DR Congo has all of them! But from the book (at least as I understand), the DRC also has, at the moment, all the ingredients for a turnaround. Including a critical mass of an educated population.
The author is writing primarily for decision makers in the west at the highest level and makes sure to suggest Actions that need to be taken at those levels to tackle the issue of poverty among The Bottom Billion.
Despite the dire description of the situation among the poorest countries, Paul shows that there is hope and that things can change but that the change will require that radical decisions are taken and stack to religiously over a prolonged period of time.
Two extracts from the book :
1. "the development problem we now face is not that of the past forty years : it is not the five billion people of the developing world and the Millennium Development Goals that track their progress. It is a much more focused problem of around a billion people in countries that are stuck."

2. "within the society of the bottom billion there is an intense struggle between brave people who are trying to achieve change and powerful groups who oppose them. The politics of the bottom billion is not the bland and sedate process of the rich democracies but rather a dangerous contest between moral extremes"


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