WB, OECD to cut aid to Uganda over political tension
Kampala, Uganda, 05/19 - Western donors for over 15 years have been describing Uganda as an African success story, citing Kampala as a role model in its economic management.
But it seems the situation has now turned in the opposite direction as Kampala`s long term aid providers are withdrawing assistance, saying mismanagement of the East African country`s political transition.
The latest to express displeasure at the regime of President Yoweri Museveni, once a darling of the West, are the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who have threatened to pull the aid plug due to recent political developments in the country.
The main sticking point is Museveni`s expressed desire to change the country`s constitution so he could remain in power indefinitely.
The former guerrilla leader shot his way to power since 1986.
Museveni`s tampering with the constitution has
jeopardised the country`s development agenda, the two organisations have insisted.
A World Bank-commissioned study headed by Joel Barkan of the University of Iowa, a senior consultant on Africa governance for the bank, recommended aid cut to Uganda over the next three years. The study is called "The Political Economy of Uganda: The Art of Managing a Donor-Financed Neo-Patrimonial State."
It added: "We regret that we cannot be more positive about the present political situation in Uganda, especially given the country`s admirable record through the late 1990s."
According to the study, the bank should plan for the possibility of a low case-lending programme in Uganda during the period of the forthcoming Country Assistance Strategy.
Secondly, the bank and other donors must rethink the appropriateness of continued budget support, and especially, the appropriateness of increasing budget support.
"Since the bank cannot weigh in explicitly on
Uganda`s
political process, this is the only mechanism at its disposal to signal its concern.
"Conversely, the continued provision of high levels of budget support, especially when such support can be diverted into classified budgets and used for political purposes, indirectly involves the bank in the political process.
"To continue budgetary support at present levels risks embarrassment to the bank, especially after it has been warned, not only by this report, but in what is common knowledge and discourse among leading members of the diplomatic community in Kampala," the confidential 74-page report stated.
World Bank has been advised to only restrict its aid assistance to closely-monitored project lending in the ongoing three-year aid programme up to 2008, and humanitarian needs only.
Kampala over the past two-years has been in talks with donors, impressing them to shift to budget support, where the government decides how to allocate funds.
Bu
t over
the last five-years donors have been cagey, citing over spending on the army at the expense of social services.
The bank warned of violence ahead of elections in June 2006, saying, "The next two years are likely to be years of increasing political conflict. Whether Uganda will be able to manage this heightened level of conflict is difficult to predict."
"The uncertainty surrounding the political transition, the war in the north and the growing corruption mean that Uganda is facing a period of rising political uncertainty," the report warned.
What started as a lone move by Britain to withhold aid over the pace and direction of Uganda`s political transition has become a wave rallying all the major donors who have now jointly issued an ultimatum to the government over the management of the country`s political transformation.
The OECD, which comprises most of Uganda`s top donors, warned in its own report that the East African country`s aid is like
ly to be
slashed if Museveni`s government mismanages the transition to multipartyism.
"While the Movement system under which parties were banned continues to dominate the political process, Ugandans are expressing a growing desire for greater pluralism in the political process," the OECD said in a report that will be launched Wednesday in Paris, France, and in Abuja, Nigeria, at a meeting of African finance and planning ministers.
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the Britain and the USA are among the OECD members.
When contacted to react to the donor`s threats of aid withdrawal, Prime Minister and leader of government business, Apolo Nsibambi, said the donors` concerns were varied, saying the transition was moving on very well.
"They could be taking away their aid for other reasons but not for political instability. There are usually other reasons which the donors do not tell us," Nsiba
mbi
insisted. |
