World Bank Seeks LGBTQ Concessions to Resume Funding for Uganda

The World Bank is urging Uganda to make concessions on LGBTQ rights as a condition to restart financial support. Learn more about the ongoing discussions and the potential implications for Uganda’s economy.

The World Bank said it is working with Uganda to resume funding to the East African country after a one-year suspension following the passage of an anti-LGBTQ law. Gay rights activists at home and abroad have blasted the global bank’s move as a “disastrous act.”

Bloomberg quoted a spokesperson for the Washington-based financial company as saying on Thursday that the bank would take steps to ensure that members of the LGBTQ community benefit equally from projects.

The measures, which include an independent monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance, will apply to both ongoing and new projects, according to the report.

The Ugandan government was widely condemned in the West after it enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) in May last year. The US government imposed visa restrictions on the bill’s sponsors and threatened further action against those responsible for the measure.

The World Bank responded by halting new loans to Kampala. It said the law, which imposes the death penalty for certain homosexual acts and 20 years in prison for promoting homosexuality, contradicted her “non-discrimination” values.

READ ALSO: Ugandan Court Refuses to Repeal Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation

The country’s President Yoweri Museveni called the decision “unfortunate” and accused the global lender of trying to force Uganda to abandon its principles and sovereignty. He vowed his country would “develop with or without credit” and said Africans do not need “pressure from anyone” to solve their problems.

The World Bank had previously said further steps were needed to ensure that project implementation in Uganda complies with the bank’s environmental and social policies.

“We will not propose to the board any new official loans to Uganda until we are satisfied that additional relief measures are in place,” Bloomberg quoted an anonymous World Bank spokesman as saying in an email on Thursday.

“These relief measures are intended to ensure that beneficiaries of projects financed by the bank are not discriminated against and have equal access to services,” the official explained.

However, more than 100 civil society organisations have written an open letter to World Bank President Ajayi Banga, urging him to maintain the funding freeze to Kampala as long as the anti-gay law remains in place.

“We are concerned that the World Bank’s relief measures are seriously flawed in both their structure and substance and that their implementation would mean a setback in the fight against discrimination not only in Uganda but also around the wider world,” the organisations explained.

“Resuming lending to a country that blatantly and continuously violates the rights of vulnerable people, based on this shockingly weak package of measures, will go down in history as a green light for discrimination against Ugandans, not just Ugandans. The government is advocating for discriminatory measures and laws around the world,” it said.