By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The loan ban placed on Uganda in the last two years in response to the passage of a “draconian” new law against LGBTQ people has been lifted, World Bank announced on Thursday.
The World Bank says it is confident that new “mitigation measures” will allow it to roll out funding in such a way that does not harm or discriminate against LGBTQ people.
The East African country had in 2023 voted in what has been described as one of the world’s harshest anti-homosexual legislation.
The law implies that anybody engaging in certain same-sex acts can be sentenced to death.
A BBC report, quoting Uganda’s Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, says hundreds of people have since then been evicted from their homes, subjected to violence or arrested because of their sexuality.
“The World Bank cannot deliver on its mission to end poverty and boost shared prosperity on a liveable planet unless all people can participate in, and benefit from, the projects we finance,” AFP news agency quoted a spokesman as saying on Thursday, adding that the organisation had “worked with the Ugandan government and other stakeholders in the country to introduce, implement and test” anti-discrimination measures.
New projects in “social protection, education, and forced displacement and refugees” have also been approved, an unnamed World Bank spokesperson told Reuters news agency.
Analysts say the World Bank is one of Uganda’s biggest sources of external financing, playing an important role in infrastructure development. Road upgrades and widened electricity access are among the projects the organisation is backing in Uganda.
But some economists criticise the funding model used by World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in general, saying it perpetuates dependency and undermines sustainable growth in the world’s poorest nations by tying them to restrictive loan conditions.
Uganda is among several African nations – including Ghana and Kenya – that in recent years have witnessed moves to curtail the rights of LGBTQ people.
Uganda’s government says its anti-gay law reflects the conservative values of its people, but its critics say the law is little more than a distraction from real issues such as high unemployment and ongoing attacks on the opposition.
