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The new measures, the bank says, are aimed at protecting members of the LGBTQ community, particularly those working in the bank’s funded projects in the country.
The World Bank suspended funding to Uganda following the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Law early this year.
Among the conditions for unfreezing the funds, the World Bank wants guarantees that gay and transgender Ugandans are not discriminated against in its programs.
Victoria Kwakwa, the bank’s head for eastern and southern Africa, told Reuters this week, that the World Bank project documents will make it clear that LGBTQ Ugandans should not face discrimination and that staff will not be arrested for including them.
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“We’re doing all this to clarify this is not what you should be doing in World Bank-financed projects and to say you are allowed to do it the right way and you will not be arrested,” Kwakwa said, on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco.
Although she declined to give a timeline for assessing the measures’ efficacy and moving to a decision on whether to resume new funding for Uganda; a World Bank Official and a senior official from Uganda’s Ministry of Finance told Bloomberg last month that funding was expected to resume as early as next year following fruitful talks between the two sides.
Kwakwa also confirmed that discussions between the bank and Ugandan officials have been ongoing.
“We have discussed this at length with the government. Government is comfortable with that,” Kwakwa said.
When the World Bank suspended new funding, Ugandan officials accused the development finance institution of hypocrisy, saying it was lending to countries in the Middle East and Asia that have the same or harsher laws targeting LGBTQ people.
The World Bank’s portfolio of projects in Uganda was $5.2 billion at the end of 2022. These have not been affected by the decision to suspend new financing.