World Bank U-turn ends loan ban to Uganda over gay rights

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reddit4ne@reddit

Yeah they realized that Uganda realized that the World Bank is not there to help Uganda butnimpose a system if financial servitude, as always. Too late, as more and more nations realiE there are ways out of the World Bank/IMF traps, its becoming harder and harder to dig their claws all the way in to the developing nations.

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This_Is_Fine12@reddit

Oh yeah asking Uganda to treat their own people with respect and dignity is apparently imposing a system on them. Why is it so hard for Uganda to treat its own people the same?

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InfamousRespect5829@reddit

Currently the biggest investor in Uganda is China. Trade between the countries is aprox 1.5 billion.

China currently holds 23% of it's debt, while World Bank holds around 40%.

China is currently involved in large infrastructure projects, having built the biggest dam, rail networks and road networks. And it is currently in talks to develop the mining and oil sectors.

The U-turn is nothing more than an attempt to counter China in Uganda and maintaining a hold over the decision process.

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kirosayshowdy@reddit

definitely. so much aid from the west has political caveats like this while China just doesn't do any of that either

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R6ckStar@reddit

You believe china invests in other countries just for the sake of investing?

It's always politics and geo politics.

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ranbirkadalla@reddit

Chinese investments rarely, if ever, come with policy related strings attached

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SyrupyMolassesMMM@reddit

Correct. This is how theyve ‘won’ the geo political game. Theyre going for the economic victory. Not the political victory.

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cookingandmusic@reddit

Sri Lanka would like a word

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BendicantMias@reddit

China owned about 10% of Sri Lanka's debt. That's about as much as Japan owns, yet I don't see folk crying about that. The vast majority of their debt - about HALF of it - was owned to market bondholders. These are also the ppl who charge the highest interest. And most of them tend to be western btw.

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Ruby2312@reddit

They probably ask mountain of resource/money in return for that, but still better than that, plus getting pressured political at the same time

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BendicantMias@reddit

China doesn't dictate domestic policy. You're free to do at home whatever you like. Maybe they ask for favorable votes at the UN or other global fora - that's a 'string' most nations would gladly accept. After all, it doesn't hurt them. It's used against the west, not them.

Anyway, their lending has been studied. The How China Lends report found that they're pretty much commercial loans i.e. the same stuff private banks and businesses extend. While I'm sure they're glad to curry favor with the govt. they lent to, that's nothing compared to attaching overt policy conditions to loans like the IMF and World Bank do (ostensibly for the recipients' own good - which is a very paternalistic attitude). The latter are openly telling countries how to manage their own affairs, which is why so many dislike them.

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R6ckStar@reddit

And I agree, I don't support the world bank nor the inf, but I'm not an idiot in thinking China does any differently.

Because at the end of the matter it's geopolitics.

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minecraftbroth@reddit

Thinking that the World Bank/IMF do anything for the good of the people of the country they're about to carve, is incredibly stupid.

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Infamous-Future6906@reddit

China scary, America good, ook

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R6ckStar@reddit

No, just like Europe and US that make these sort of investments there are always strings attached.

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Infamous-Future6906@reddit

So why are you singling out China?? You’re just chickening out of your lazy Sinophobia now lol

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cpcwarden@reddit

They were responding to a comment that specifically referenced China (and more specifically, painted China in a benevolent light contrasted with the West), and when questioned, specifically said that Chinas actions were comparable to those of the US and Europe. I see no Sinophobia here.

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Infamous-Future6906@reddit

Nothing about the original comment made China sound “benevolent.” It’s just a neutral description.

You are so accustomed to the way anglophone press talks about China that when there’s no scare-words you think it’s complimentary

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Alex09464367@reddit (OP)

Uganda is the only Christian majority country to kill people for who they love

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BrownThunderMK@reddit

The USA is one step ahead as usual, we have JDAMs that become duds if they detect homosexuality inside their blast radous

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empleadoEstatalBot@reddit

World Bank U-turn ends loan ban to Uganda over gay rights

The World Bank says it is lifting a ban on loans to Uganda that it had put in place two years ago when the country passed a draconian new law against LGBTQ people.

In 2023, Uganda voted in some of the world's harshest anti-homosexual legislation meaning that anybody engaging in certain same-sex acts can be sentenced to death.

Since then, hundreds of people have been evicted from their homes, subjected to violence or arrested because of their sexuality, according to Uganda's Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum.

But 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 BBC has asked the Ugandan government and the World Bank for further comment.

"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, " a spokesman told the AFP news agency 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 the 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 the East African country.

But some economists criticise the funding model used by the 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.

News of Uganda's draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023 prompted international condemnation.

It cost the country somewhere between $470m and $1.7bn (£347m and £1.2bn) in the year that followed, mainly because of frozen financing, according to estimates by the UK-based charity Open for Business.

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.

"It's low-hanging fruit," Oryem Nyeko, a researcher working at Human Rights Watch in Uganda, told CBC at the time.

"It's being framed as something that's foreign and threatening to people's children."

Victims of beatings, evictions and worse say that Uganda's new law has emboldened people to attack them based on their perceived sexuality.

The fact that the law also stipulates a 20-year prison sentence for "promoting" homosexuality has also been seen as an attack on anybody who defends LGBTQ rights, but the government denies this.

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