countries is a simple and practical way in which anyone can help to
lower the costs of knowledge for these societies.
There is, of course, a vast specialist literature on the management
and mismanagement of natural assets. In The Plundered Planet I try to
make the key ideas accessible to a wide audience. Like The Bottom
Billion, it is my attempt to build a more informed society. The
Plundered Planet focuses on the most important opportunity that
most low-income societies will face over the next decade. These
societies are the last frontier for resource discoveries and, with high
global commodity prices, they will be discovered. The new scramble
for Africa is on: the challenge is to prevent a repeat performance.
References
Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University:
http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/
Collier, P. (2007). The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are falling and what can be
done about it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Collier, P. (2010). The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - sets a global standard for
transparency in oil, gas and mining: http://eiti.org/
Natural Resource Charter - sets out the entire decision chain and provides
extensive references: http://www.naturalresourcecharter.org/
TED Talk – Paul Collier on the “bottom billion” (video):
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_shares_4_ways_to_help_the_botto
m_billion.html