The World Bank Group is a global institution controlled by the U.S. government. It is supposed to lend low interest money to developing countries in need.
Last year the position of its president became controversial. David Malpass, a former Treasury official, was perceived as being ambiguous about the cause of climate change. In February he threw the towel:
The president of the World Bank will step down from his post in June, leaving the organisation almost a year before his term was due to end.
David Malpass announced his decision on social media, without providing a specific reason for his departure.
The pick of former US President Donald Trump, he has been criticised as a climate-change denier.
Last year, the White House rebuked him after he said he did not know if fossil fuels were driving climate change.
He later apologised for the remarks.
In June one Ajay Banga, a former CEO of Mastercard, was installed as the new president. He had worked as an outside adviser for the Obama administration and later for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Under Banga the World Bank Group has gone woke:
World Bank halts new lending to Uganda over anti-LGBTQ law
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank said on Tuesday it would halt new lending to the Ugandan government after concluding that its anti-LGBTQ law, which has been condemned by many countries and the United Nations, contradicts the bank’s values.
In response, the East African country dismissed the move as unjust and hypocritical.
A World Bank team traveled to Uganda immediately after the law was enacted in May and determined that additional measures were needed to ensure projects were being implemented in line with the bank’s environmental and social standards.
“No new public financing to Uganda will be presented to our Board of Executive Directors until the efficacy of the additional measures has been tested,” the bank said in a statement, adding that such measures were now under discussion with Ugandan authorities.
“Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values. We believe our vision to eradicate poverty on a livable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality,” the bank said.
…
On May 2 the Ugandan Anti-Homosexualty Act passed its third reading in parliament by a vote of 348 to 1. On May 29 it became law. Ajay Banta started his World Bank presidency on June 2.
Uganda’s society is, like many others, against the ‘unnatural’ differentiation of gender and sexuality.
The World Bank Group has a page about values but those are designed for the World Bank workforce and its interaction with other people:
For the diverse workforce of the World Bank Group, integrity, ethical behavior, and adherence to corporate values are core to the success of our mission to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.
The World Banks mission, according to its website, consists of just two targets:
To end extreme poverty: By reducing the share of the global population that lives in extreme poverty to 3 percent.
To promote shared prosperity: By increasing the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of people in every country.
I find nothing about the bank being supposed to push for controversial ‘values’ that only a few western societies halfheartedly support.
Will World Bank loans to Kuwait, Pakistan, Kenia or the Vatican now only come with vague value mandates attached to them?
How is that supposed to help the World Bank’s to fulfill its core mission?
This stinks of a very specific intervention in the World Bank mission by some woke Democrats.
As the Ugandan government correctly points out:
Uganda’s state minister for foreign affairs, Okello Oryem accused the bank of hypocrisy, saying they were lending to countries in the Middle East and Asia that have the same or harsher laws on homosexuality.
“There are many Middle East countries who do not tolerate homosexuals, they actually hang and execute homosexuals, in the United States of America many states have passed laws that are either against or restrict activities of homosexuality … so why pick on Uganda?” he said.
“The World Bank has been put under pressure by the usual imperialists.”
Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.
