In particular, successor republics of the former Soviet Union such as Turkmenistan, the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, as well as the three Baltic States, saw their Gini coefficient increase by more than 10 points between 1981 and 1999. This group of countries10 is home to 750 million people, or 12 per cent of the world’s population. It is claimed that the economic growth prospects of these countries have been undermined by their geography, with 28 of them being landlocked or small island States (Gallup, Sachs and Mellinger, 1998, Collier, 2007). Controlling for economic policies and institutions, some researchers contend that the location and climate of the continent of Africa have had a negative impact on its income levels and growth.