Dispatching problem of poverty has made world a much better place

Sustainable development

He came to prominence as principal economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and as program director at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, where he was engaged on sustainable development.

In 1996, he became chief executive and managing director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and it was in his five years there that he worked for Mandela. He was also director of development policy at the World Bank from 2001 to 2003 and then its vice president from 2003 to 2006.

He is best known at Oxford as founding director between 2006 and 2016 of the Oxford Martin School, which brought together the university's expertise in critical global challenges, including climate change and development issues.

Apart from The Butterfly Effect and his latest work, Goldin has written a number of influential books, including Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future and, with Chris Kutarna, Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance, which present an optimistic view of the world's development.

Goldin said the current pandemic has the potential to halt global progress and that there needs to be concerted action on the scale of a new Marshall Plan to ensure that developing nations, in particular, do not suffer too much from the crisis.

"What we need is a massive global response from the G20, the G7, the World Bank and other institutions.

"What we have is a very tepid and fragmented reaction, and that's partly, of course, because of the US not providing any leadership role. It is not only the US. Other countries have not stepped up to the scale of this challenge."