World Bank lifts lending freeze over Uganda anti-LGBTQ law

The World Bank is lifting a freeze on lending to Uganda it put in place in response to a 2023 law criminalizing homosexuality, after taking steps to counter discrimination, it said Wednesday.

Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law, one of the most severe in the world, provides for harsh sentences for same-sex relations or “promoting” homosexuality, including the death penalty in some cases.

In this file photo taken on April 04, 2023 Ugandas queer activist Papa De raises her fist outside the Uganda High Commission in Pretoria during a picket against the countrys anti-homosexuality bill. – Ugandan LGBTQ rights defender, artist and photographer DeLovie Kwagala, also known as Papa De, who for South Africa amid Uganda draconian anti-gay legislation, will be forced to return to their country. Uganda’s parliament early this month passed a new draft of anti-gay legislation, retaining many draconian provisions despite President Yoweri Museveni’s call to rework an earlier version of the bill following an outcry from Western governments and rights groups. The bill will now be sent to Museveni, who can again choose to use his veto or sign it into law. Homosexuality was criminalised in Uganda under colonial laws, but there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity since independence from Britain in 1962. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)

After longtime President Yoweri Museveni signed it into law in May 2023, the World Bank halted all new loans to Uganda, saying projects it financed had to adhere to its non-discriminatory policies.

Since then, “the World Bank worked with the government and other stakeholders in the country to introduce, implement and test measures that prevent discrimination in World Bank-funded projects,” a spokesman told AFP.

“We have now determined the mitigation measures rolled out over the last several months in all ongoing projects in Uganda to be satisfactory,” he added.

“Consequently, the Bank has prepared new projects in sectors with significant development needs,” which will be presented to the World Bank’s board, he said.

“All new projects have the mitigations measures embedded in them,” he added.

“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.”

Uganda has lost between $586 million and $2.4 billion a year because of the anti-LGBTQ law, notably because of frozen financing, British charity Open for Business estimated last year.

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World Bank lifts lending freeze over Uganda anti-LGBTQ law

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