“The Bottom Billion - why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it” By Paul Collier

Based on his book of the same name, in this lecture Paul Collier will point out how global poverty is actually falling quite rapidly for about eighty percent of the world. The real crisis lies in a group of about 50 failing states, the bottom billion, whose problems defy traditional approaches to alleviating poverty. These fifty failed states pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century.

The Lecture will be Chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, John Hood.

Paul Collier is Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford.

This is event is hosted by the James Martin 21st Century School, in association with Oxford University Press and Blackwell. Pre-signed copies of the book will be available for sale immediately following the lecture.

This event is free and open to the public; but numbers are strictly limited to 300, and will be allocated on a first-come, first-seated basis.