"The world is complicated, and so with the actions we take, we must be confident that they’re going to help and not make things worse."

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at Oxford University, a professorial fellow of St Antony’s College and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. From 1998 to 2003, he directed the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He is widely known for three books: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It; Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places; and The Plundered Planet: Why We Must—and How We Can—Manage Nature for Global Prosperity. Collier grew up in Sheffield, England and holds a Distinction Award from Oxford University. In 1988, he won the Edgar Graham Book Prize as co-author of Labour and Poverty in Rural Tanzania. His academic work has focused on economic growth in Africa, the economics of civil war, foreign aid, globalization and governance in low-income countries, particularly among democracies.