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GLOBEMED’S GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM

globalhealthUTrack 2, Week 1

Exploring The Theories Of Paul Collier

Notable Quotes:

✦ “The real question to pose is not, ‘Can we be optimistic?’ It’s, ‘How can we give credible hope to a billion people?’ That, to my mind, is the fundamental challenge now of development.”

✦ “What I’m going to offer you is a recipe, a combination of the two forces that changed the world for good, which is the alliance of compassion and enlightened self-interest... We need compassion to get ourselves started, and enlightened self-interest to get ourselves serious”

Biography

Paul Collier is author of the award-winning book The Bottom Billion. Mr. Collier is a professor of Economics at Oxford University. He is also director of the Centre for the Study of African Economics, a professorial fellow at St. Anthony's College, a professor associate at CERDI (Centre for Studies and Research in International Development) at l'Université d'Auvergne; and a Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London, England. Mr. Collier has also served as senior advisor to Tony Blair's Commission for Africa. He also completed the first-ever external review of International Monetary Fund (IMF) operations for the Board of the IMF. From 1998 to 2003 he was director of the development research group at the World Bank.1

Major Theories

Collier is, at heart, an idealist. His thesis for economic development is based on a combination of values - compassion and enlightened self-interest - that ultimately yield a movement capable of springing a billion people out of stagnant economies. But his ideas also take on an empirical and pragmatic view, as he looks toward previous attempts at development to shape his suggestions for the future.

To help understand how to alleviate present poverty, Collier draws a comparison to American development of post-WWII Europe. He argues that this was done through a large aid program, an alteration of trade and security policies, and a reassessing of national sovereignty. Collier sees these four points - aid, trade, security, and mutual government support as opposed to strict concepts of sovereignty - as still being the major issues that need to be addressed in the current development crisis.2 He stresses the importance of international organizations in bringing about these changes.

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globalhealthUGLOBEMED’S GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM

He also addresses more specific, but equally significant, issues of levels of governance and political transitions in post-conflict territories. He uses the example of commodity booms to demonstrate the importance of the former.

Commodities in countries like Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and New Guinea have the potential to bring in funds that dwarf the amount of foreign aid they are receiving. Angola, for example, makes around 50 billion dollars a year in oil revenue, which is more than the combined aid to the 60 countries of the “bottom billion.” Yet most of these countries end up, in the long run, being worse off than if there had been no boom in the first place. The reason, Collier explains, is the level of good governance. If you have good governance, there is no resource “boom”. You go up in the short term, and then you go up even more in the long term.3

Democracies make even more of a mess of these resource booms than autocracies. Electoral competition is the aspect of democracies that proves damaging, whereas strong checks and balances make the resource booms beneficial. Resource rich countries got instant democracies in the 1990’s, but not strong checks and balances.4

Collier’s proposal is that there should be international standards that would spell out the key decision points that need to be taken to harness these resource revenues. He cites the Extraditive Industries Transparency Initiative, where governments report what revenues they have to their citizens, as a step in the right direction.

For the many developing countries that are recovering from conflicts, Collier suggests a reversal of the current strategy for development. The conventional approach to post-conflict situations has rested on three principles. “The first principle is: it’s the politics that matters. So, the first thing that is prioritized is politics. Try and build a political settlement first. And then the second step is to say, ‘The situation is admittedly dangerous, but only for a short time.’ So get the peacekeepers there, but get them home as soon as possible. So, short-term peacekeepers. And thirdly, what is the exit strategy for the peacekeepers? It’s an election. That will produce a legitimate and accountable government.”5

Collier thinks this should go in the opposite order. He believes that the elections that the current strategy creates do not produce an accountable and legitimate government, but rather a winner and loser in a zero-sum game. The politics must come last, as they get easier as time progresses if you’re building on a foundation of security and economic development. This new type of politics should be supported by three key actors; the Security Council, donors, and the post-conflict government.

Collier’s suggestions go from broad and idealistic to very specific and tangible. The wide scope of his theories provide a unique and innovative approach to alleviating poverty.

1. http://acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/eng/LUC-111411283-MBL2. http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_shares_4_ways_to_help_the_bottom_billion.html3. http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_shares_4_ways_to_help_the_bottom_billion.html4. http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_shares_4_ways_to_help_the_bottom_billion.html5. http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_s_new_rules_for_rebuilding_a_broken_nation.html

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globalhealthUGLOBEMED’S GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM

Resources✦ A Measure of Hope: Paul Collier discusses the development of Zambia and critiques international

development efforts and the Millennium Development goals, calling for a new approach by the UN. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22collier.html

✦ TED Talk: Paul Collier on the “Bottom Billion”: Paul Collier discusses his own foreign aid suggestions in relation to governance.

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_shares_4_ways_to_help_the_bottom_billion.html✦ TED Talk: Paul Collier’s New Rules For Rebuilding a Broken Nation: Paul Collier discusses what the

development strategy should be for countries that have just emerged from conflict, as well as how to avoid conflict in the first place.

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_s_new_rules_for_rebuilding_a_broken_nation.html