World Bank to implement LGBTQ safeguards before new Uganda funding resumes

FILE PHOTO: Ashley Karungi 33, a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTQ) community and a single mother of two poses for a picture with rainbow colours at the offices of Rella Women's Empowerment Program, for LGBTQ rights advocacy, after a Reuters interview in Kulambiro suburb of Kampala, Uganda April 4, 2023. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa/File Photo

MARRAKECH, Morocco (Reuters) - The World Bank will aim to ensure gay and transgender Ugandans are not discriminated against in its programmes before resuming new funding, which was halted in August over an anti-LGBTQ law, a bank executive said.

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, Victoria Kwakwa, the bank's head for eastern and southern Africa, told Reuters.