« How easily we are fooled: The rotating grid illusion | Main | Health, population and the human mind: Marvin Minsky on TED.com »
22 September 2008
Paul Collier's appeal to the UN: Consider the Bottom Billion for more than one year
The General Assembly of the United Nations convenes this week. In this session, they'll be reviewing the Millenium Development Goals set in 2000 -- and to underscore the UN's commitment, secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has declared that the “bottom billion” of the earth’s poorest people are the focus of development efforts for 2008. But economist Paul Collier (watch his TEDTalk) asks Ban and the rest of the UN to go a step further:
... to focus on the challenge of helping the bottom billion to converge with the rest of mankind -- on a more realistic timescale. We need not just a “Year of the Bottom Billion,” but several decades.
How can richer, more developed nations help the bottom billion (and as Collier points out, it's now the bottom 1.4 billion)? The answer is not more aid, but more policy, he suggests:
I am not hostile to aid. I think we should increase it, though given the looming recession in Europe and North America, I doubt we will. But other policies on governance, agriculture, security and trade could be used to potent effect.
Read the New York Times Op-Ed piece by Paul Collier >>
Discuss this Blog Post
Loading Comments... 
Become a Fan of TED
on Facebook
Follow TED on Twitter:
@TEDNews | @TEDTalks
Subscribe to TED RSS feeds:
TED Blog | More RSS Options
Recent Comments
BrokenPen on You asked Seth Godin absolutely anything -- and he answered
swaroopch on The Buzz: Shukla Bose inspires with her story of education
joa1 on How to feed the whole world (the case for white bread): Louise Fresco on TED.com
Christmas on Ze Frank: "Santa ain't fat"
areks on The Buzz: Sunitha Krishnan on the human face of human trafficking
nivashkumar on The Buzz: Pranav Mistry awakens the Sixth Sense
krishnamurthir on The Buzz: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev meditates on majestic chaos
krishnamurthir on The Buzz: Pranav Mistry awakens the Sixth Sense
nivashkumar on The Buzz: Sunitha Krishnan on the human face of human trafficking
twentytwo on Rebuilding broken states: Ashraf Ghani on TED.com
News from TED
Learn about TEDIndia conference >>
Find all our posts about TEDGlobal 2009 >>
Follow the TED Fellows blog >>
Throw your own TED-style event with TEDx >>
TED takeaway
TED ringtones:
TEDTalks Classic tune in [mp3] [m4r]
TEDTalks Phase II tune in [mp3] [m4r]
Subscribe to TED's weekly newsletter
Get the latest news on the TED Prize on TEDPrize.org >>
Archives
TED Bloggers
Chris Anderson | Curator
June Cohen | Director of TED Media
Amy Novogratz | TED Prize Director
Tom Rielly | Community
Bruno Giussani | TED European Director
Jason Wishnow | Director, Film + Video
Emily McManus | Editor, TED.com
Matthew Trost | Assistant Editor, TED.com
Shanna Carpenter | Writer and Community Organizer, TED.com
Diego Rodriguez | Guestblogger
Jane Wulf | TED Scribe
Blogs we watch
+ TEDPrize.org
+ TED Fellows blog
+ Thomas Dolby | TED Musical Director, blogging at ThomasDolby.com
+ Emeka Okafor | TEDAfrica Director, blogging at Timbuktu Chronicles and Africa Unchained
+ The indispensable Global Voices
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Powered by Movable Type
