Activists urge the World Bank not to resume lending to Uganda

A group of activists who organized a protest outside Uganda’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. in New York on Thursday demanded the World Bank Group not resume loans to the country.

The World Bank in August 2023 suspended new lending to Uganda in response to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed.

“The law needs to be struck down and repealed. Hard stop,” acting U.S. World Bank Executive Director L. Felice Gorordo told the Washington Blade during a March 27, 2024, interview at his office in Washington. “We continue to advocate for that.”

Thursday’s protest coincided with the U.N. General Assembly that began earlier in the week in New York.

A press release the activists issued before the protest notes the World Bank “recently started testing a package of ‘mitigation measures’ to determine if discrimination is taking place.” The Council for Global Equality, the Human Rights Campaign, Immigration Equality, Outright International, Sexual Minorities Uganda, and Health GAP are among the more than 100 LGBTQ rights organizations from around the world that urged World Bank President Ajay Banga in a Sept. 16 letter not to restart lending to Uganda.

“We are writing to you from Uganda and around the world now because we are alarmed by the World Bank’s plan for mitigation measures in Uganda,” reads the letter. “The World Bank has announced that it will be testing the effectiveness of ‘mitigation measures’ from July-September 2024 and that the World Bank will restart lending if they decide the measures are effective in protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination.”

Richard Lusimbo, director general of the Uganda Key Population Consortium, in the press release said the World Bank’s “so-called ‘mitigation measures’ are a façade, designed to provide the illusion of protection.”

“They rely on perpetrators of discrimination — the government of Uganda — to implement the measures fairly,” he said. “How can they be taken seriously?” 

A World Bank spokesperson on Friday responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment about the protest.

“The World Bank cannot deliver on its mission to end poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet unless all people can participate in, and benefit from, the projects we finance,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson referred the Blade to an Aug. 8, 2023, statement that announced the suspension of new loans to Uganda. 

“Immediately after the law was enacted, the World Bank deployed a team to Uganda to review our portfolio in the context of the new legislation,” reads the statement. “That review determined additional measures are necessary to ensure projects are implemented in alignment with our environmental and social standards. Our goal is to protect sexual and gender minorities from discrimination and exclusion in the projects we finance. These measures are currently under discussion with the authorities.”  

“We will not propose any new public financing for Uganda to our board until we are satisfied that additional mitigation measures are in place,” the spokesperson told the Blade on Friday. “These mitigation measures have been designed to ensure beneficiaries of bank-financed projects are not discriminated against and receive equal access to services.”  

One such mitigation measure is “stakeholder engagement” that, among other things, seeks to strengthen “consultations to detect instances of exclusion or discrimination (do-no harm safety.)” Another specifically highlights “labor and working conditions” and focuses on the need for “training on inclusion and non-discrimination for borrowers (e.g., contractors and sub-contractors) and mobilization of communities” and including “provisions of non-discrimination in contracts.”

The World Bank has said the Ugandan government has agreed to the mitigation measures.

Clare Byarugaba of Chapter 4 Uganda said there “can be no business as usual between the World Bank and the government of Uganda while this law remains in force.” 

“We are gravely concerned that President Banga is turning his back on us, and breaking his commitments to ensuring non-discrimination,” she said.