Georgetown University's Mortara Center for International Studies is hosting a book discussion next week on "The Bottom Billion- Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It."

The author of the book, Paul Collier will be at the discussion. Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at Oxford University and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economics. He works on a wide range of macroeconomic, microeconomic and political economy topics concerned with Africa. Currently he is doing research on the causes and consequences of civil war, the effects of aid, and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies. He was the senior advisor to Tony Blair's Commission on Africa, and was a former Director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.The event is next Wednesday September 26 from 12:00-2:00 pm at the Mortara Center (corner of 36th and N Streets) at Georgetown University. Lunch will be served and book signing to follow. Please RSVP.

Abigail and I will both be attending the discussion and we hope to see our NextBillion.net readers there!