Factors of Holding Back a Countries Growth

Discuss the factors holding back countries growth, and evaluate the measures used to aid growth in the future
There are many factors that prevent countries from growing; these are often called ‘traps’. There are four different traps; the conflict trap, the natural resource trap, the landlocked trap and the bad governance trap. Countries that fall into these traps are generally the poorer countries, called the bottom billion as there are around one billion people trapped in poverty. Often these countries fall into one trap and recover only to fall into another trap.
One factor holding back countries growth is conflict, where there are politics there will always be conflict, people have opposing views. This can be a civil war, which slows a countries growth, as it costs a lot of money to fund a war, which means a country that goes to war is likely to be as poor as they were a while ago after the war. This means the country has been unable to grow. During a civil war the country is growing at a slow rate or not at all which actually makes it more prone to a civil war and less likely to be able to resolve the war. The people in a country with low income and slow growth feel life is hopeless and so join rebel groups for the small chance of becoming rich. Furthermore if the quality of life is so poor, people have nothing to lose. If a country has plenty of natural resources the rebels can be financed more easily and hence a civil war is more likely, it coincidently means the civil war can last longer. Once a civil war starts, income drops; this prevents a country growing at a good rate or may even stop growth. Civil wars are often longer in the poorer countries, as war becomes normal; interests on both sides develop and only know how to do well during the war. War costs the county and its neighbours a lot of money, even once the war is over, this can hold a country back from growing and also make development more difficult for other regions. If the country is not