BOOK REVIEW ON THE BOTTOM BILLION: WHY THE POOREST COUNTRIES ARE FAILING AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT

Written by Paul Collier, the book was published in 2007. Collier is an Oxford graduate and worked as the Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at the same university. He is also the former director of World Bank

The book overlay critical viewpoint about countries that lie at the bottom of the global economic system and put forwards a range of reasons behind their failure to grow. It also suggests in detail on how developed countries can respond to such failures.

Heading towards the 'Black hole', according to the author, are those 980 million people, referred to as 'the bottom billion', who are living in 'trapped countries'. Out of the total, seventy percent lives in Africa making the region more impoverished. The writer argues that these bottom billion, living in 58 different nations, are living in such a trap that is not just pulling themselves but can even bring in serious consequences for the rest of the world. Therefore, the author identifies four traps namely: conflict trap, natural resource trap, landlocked with bad neighbors and bad governance.
Similarly, focus is also made on the issue of globalization showing how the economy of the bottom billion is being affected by the trade, migration and capital. In addition, in the later part of the book, the writer put forwards 'instruments' that can help the bottom billion come out of the vicious. In short, these instruments as referred in the book are aid, military intervention, country laws, charters and trade policy. Having all said, the cream of the book is on the agenda for action towards breaking the growth traps.

Major Issues: The four traps
With the strong thought, "Civil war is development in reverse", the writer talks about the Conflict trap, which according to him is the most severe trap because it distorts not only the economic environment of the country but also the overall social, psychological aspects at large. The writer discusses the atrocity of civil war which weakens and reduces resources of the country, thereby further resulting in the unrelenting and continued civil wars. In such a scenario, fragile government lacks required systems to satisfy public demands, which further encourages poverty to give off hopelessness and frustration among the people. In such a condition, people, especially youth, retaliate against the government. The rebellion young people, in such wars, come from low education background and previously extremely dependent. Once an armed conflict penetrates deep in the society, it strengthens poverty, makes it more complex and widens the possibility of further violence and vulnerability. All in all, the conflict trap is in no way helpful for the economic prosperity and fail to encourage foreign and domestic investment. Writer emphasizes that conflicts could be avoided by enacting good domestic policies and properly exercising democratic rights. However, he also refuges to accept fully that democratic right alone can reduce the risk of wars.

The second trap is the natural resources trap. Collier stresses the fact that even in the case of abundance of natural resources many countries are failing to thrive. These countries are way below than countries with little natural resource.  In other words, having much resource can turn out to be curse to the nation. Collier argues that resources are the cause of conflicts. In many instances, civil wars have erupted in Africa for control over resources like petroleum and diamond. Similarly, it is also obvious that in case of abundant natural resources a government does not tax its citizens. In that case, people are less likely to demand financial accountability from the government. The government can go corrupt which ultimately lead to exploitation of both resources and income from the resources. The exploitation of valuable resources leads to in competencies of industries as a result domestic market falls. In overall, the evil of resources reduces check and balance.

The third trap is the situation of landlocked country with bad neighbors. Such landlocked countries economy is certainly dependent on its immediate neighbors. Therefore, the well functioning and sound economy of neighbor can only give back opportunities for economic prosperity for landlocked countries. If the neighbors are themselves in poverty trap with bad economic condition, then the landlocked country is sure to suffer its effects. In case of good neighbors, Switzerland, for instance, despite being landlocked country is still being successful because neighbors of it are France, Italy and Germany which have undoubtedly strong economy. In contrary, country like Uganda which has got Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Zaire and Tanzania as neighbors is at fix because its neighbors are in one or more similar traps. 

Therefore, it is the route that determines. If the route is blocked by poor neighbors with bad infrastructure and small markets then it becomes very difficult to grow. Therefore, the growth cannot spread out. To recover such problems, writer suggests certain strategies like increase neighbor growth spillovers, improve neighbor’s economic policies, improve coastal access, encourage remittances, create a transparent and investor-friendly environment for resource prospecting, rural development and finally try to attract aid.

The fourth trap is mentioned as bad governance in a small country. Corruption is the most severe face of the bad governance which directs money away from people. In Collier words, corruption drains money away from its intended destination. The government always tries to make people less responsive, less reactive and want to keep their people in the veil of ignorance. The prospect of check and balance starts to wither away leading to in-transparency which ultimately harms overall growth. The writer confirms that over 76 per cent of the bottom billion countries have suffered long periods of bad governance and poor economic policies.

Issue of globalization

Collier presents his position on globalization which according to him gives benefits to countries in a contextual basis. In other words, globalization itself won't solve the problem of impoverish countries. Mainly, globalization affects the country's economy via three holds: trade, capital and migration. For the writer, the bottom billion nations cannot compete with global market in terms of trade, capital. Also, they cannot generate efficient labor force. The book depicts the bitter reality that globalization has always been favorable for developed nations, while for all those late comers or poor nation's globalization has made things more complicated and complex. In other words, the growth that globalization is showing to these impoverished nations are unfortunately wrong growth.

The instruments

Collier advocates four major remedies as instruments to help the country break aforementioned four kinds of traps. These instruments are: aid, military intervention, changes to domestic and international laws and norms, and changes to trade policy.

Aid: According to the author, aid can make a difference and help countries step ladder of development.  More explicitly, aid has contributed to one percent annual growth of the bottom billion, saving it from reaching the negative figures. However, if aid exceeds 16 % of GDP, writer argues, it stops being effective.In addition, aid is beginning phase important for poor countries because they support government funding. The writer says, " Although post-conflict aid has been ‘too little and too soon’, but aid that accelerates growth cuts the risk of conflict". Also, large aid flows need to be continued during the first post-conflict decade. It should also be kept in mind that aid cannot get countries out of the trap but in some ways help to stop conflict. For instance, it may facilitate landlocked countries with improved infrastructures, but cannot avoid the condition of having bad neighbors. 

Military intervention: When the country's military forces fail to maintain the situation on right side, when they themselves become causes of problem, in that case, military intervention, according to Collier, can be the good remedy in order to penetrate the civil wars and coups and establish peace. However, he suggests it may not work every time.  For instance, British military involvement in Sierra Leone worked but American troop in Somalia failed.

Country laws and charters and trade agreements: Collier believes country laws and charters can improve accountability and transparency. Likewise, trade agreements in the form of revised WTO agreement can lead to better society. He suggests by adopting international laws and codes, a country can benefit in tracking the irregularities that goes inside the country especially in case of corrupt government. For doing this, pressure and mass support from the bottom-billion community is required. The government must be morally pressured to ratify such international norms. The writer outlines the model charters for declaring political contributions and expenses, transparency in budgets, post-conflict behavior by successor regimes, and investment. On trade, the writer urges the need of free trade. No any barriers to trade are required in order to facilitate markets. In case of barriers, it would benefit none of the two parties, neither developed nations nor developing countries. Also, the rich countries are suggested to drop their tariffs for poor countries. Also, he has highlighted the need of trade diversification. But having said so, he also expresses his deep dissatisfaction on the abuses OECD countries are regularly doing on against poor countries on the name of helping poor

All in all, the book can be best described as the source of information for every one of us, especially for those who might have started understanding the causes of poverty and some ways of solving it.