One billion people below the poverty line

Global poverty is rapidly descending upon the world, but among the nearly fifty failed countries, the world's poorest people are facing an increasingly dire and cruel tragedy. These billion people live below the poverty line, living on less than a dollar a day. While the rest of the world is steadily progressing, these billion people have been left behind. This has had serious consequences, not only for the world's poor, but also for global stability. Why do the world's poorest countries obstruct the international community's attempts to help them? Why does it seem that no one—no matter who—can change the status quo? In his book, One Billion People Below the Poverty Line, Paul Collier highlights the fundamental issues of corruption, political unrest, and the misuse of wealth at the root of the problem. He describes the raging battle between corrupt leaders and reformists. He also examines other influencing factors, such as civil war, reliance on natural resource exports, and the lack of good governance, which have led the country to fall into the trap of social backwardness and economic decline. Collier carefully examines the reasons why traditional aid has been unable to address these problems and lays out a fundamentally ambitious and new plan of action, including a new G8 agenda that adopts more effective anti-corruption standards, preferential trade policies, and direct military intervention, if necessary. All these initiatives are carefully designed to help the forgotten billion people below the poverty line. It is a huge challenge, indeed one of the most important challenges facing the world in the twenty-first century.