How to Save Africa.

The hotly contested World Trade Organization summit that just concluded in Cancun failed to finish the one big deal that could have saved lives in Africa. By refusing to cut billions in support for agribusiness exporters, the United States ensured that millions of African farmers will continue struggling to sell their produce at home, much less abroad. Worse, there is no solution in sight, given the power of the U.S. farm lobby and the approaching presidential election. According to a growing body of opinion, however, there is another big pot of money that could help save Africa.

It's oil. Africa's oil revenue will far exceed the sums it now earns from farm exports (about $12 billion a year). With Western multinationals pouring money into African oil projects, their partners in African government expect about $200 billion per year in oil revenue over the next 10 years. If that money went into health, education, roads and new industries, it could go a long way toward turning the continent around.

So far, however, Africa's oil boom has not fed the greater good. Average GDP growth fell from 4.3 percent in 2001 to 3.2 percent in 2002, and a recent study by Catholic Relief Services concludes that African petrodollars have actually worsened poverty. Oil money tends to discourage investment in other industries, hurt exports by inflating the local currency and create a trove of easy money that leaders use to buy off opponents and pacify the populace with civil-service jobs and low taxes. When oil prices crash, oil economies fall too, often helping trigger rebellions, says Oxford economist Paul Collier, who has documented a correlation between natural-resource dependence and civil wars.

Nigeria is the most oil-dependent economy in the world, and suffers constant ...