Poverty expert to spell out Africa aid challenge

A controversial expert on African poverty will address an event in Dublin today.

Prof Paul Collier, the director of Oxford University’s Centre for the Study of African Economies will speak at the Institute of European Affairs (IEA).

The event is co-organised by the IEA in conjunction with Irish Aid.

The outspoken academic clashed with NGOs on the causes of African poverty while he worked at the World Bank between 1998-2003.

He will today present arguments from his new book 'The Bottom Billion' - about the poorest 20% of the world’s population.

He believes that 50 stricken countries pose the greatest aid challenge to the developing world in the 21st Century.