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Financial fallout
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Click here for the DEVEX Newswire edition from which this is excerpted
The uproar over Uganda’s widely condemned anti-homosexuality law continues as two major institutions consider yanking billions of dollars in aid to a country where being gay could be a death sentence.
The World Bank and USAID are now rethinking their assistance to the East African country, whose longtime president, Yoweri Museveni, signed a law last Friday that could lead to the death penalty for people found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as same-sex acts involving people living with HIV or minors, among others.
“We are reviewing our portfolio of projects and next steps,” outgoing World Bank President David Malpass exclusively told Shabtai, adding that the new law is an “affront to the values of the World Bank.”
Meanwhile, my colleague Omar Mohammed reports that USAID Administrator Samantha Power described the law as “an unconscionable attack on an already marginalized group” and that it jeopardizes the agency’s assistance to Uganda — currently one of the largest recipients of funding from USAID.
The law could also endanger funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President Joe Biden has said he asked his National Security Council to assess the law’s consequences on all aspects of U.S. engagement with the country, including trade, meaning that Uganda’s draconian stance on homosexuality could be an incredibly costly one.
Read: World Bank, USAID aid billions for Uganda jeopardized by anti-gay law
Also read: Uganda’s new anti-LGBTQ law could make PEPFAR’s work ‘illegal’
The World Bank and USAID are now rethinking their assistance to the East African country, whose longtime president, Yoweri Museveni, signed a law last Friday that could lead to the death penalty for people found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as same-sex acts involving people living with HIV or minors, among others.
“We are reviewing our portfolio of projects and next steps,” outgoing World Bank President David Malpass exclusively told Shabtai, adding that the new law is an “affront to the values of the World Bank.”
Meanwhile, my colleague Omar Mohammed reports that USAID Administrator Samantha Power described the law as “an unconscionable attack on an already marginalized group” and that it jeopardizes the agency’s assistance to Uganda — currently one of the largest recipients of funding from USAID.
The law could also endanger funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President Joe Biden has said he asked his National Security Council to assess the law’s consequences on all aspects of U.S. engagement with the country, including trade, meaning that Uganda’s draconian stance on homosexuality could be an incredibly costly one.
Read: World Bank, USAID aid billions for Uganda jeopardized by anti-gay law
Also read: Uganda’s new anti-LGBTQ law could make PEPFAR’s work ‘illegal’
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