In February 2014, Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the World Bank, received calls from Rep. Barney Frank, the influential former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, as well as other prominent congressional leaders. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had just approved a slightly weaker version of the brutal anti-homosexuality bill that he signed into law this past Monday. Frank reportedly told Kim that support from the United States and other donors could be in jeopardy if “the bank goes ahead and gives all this money to Uganda right after signing that terrible law.”
Soon thereafter, Kim published a Post op-ed announcing that the World Bank would undertake a review of how it might enshrine opposition to discrimination more explicitly into its decision-making. The bank had long been criticized for not taking human rights violations seriously as it decided how to apportion funding for projects.
In February 2014, Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the World Bank, received calls from Rep. Barney Frank, the influential former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, as well as other prominent congressional leaders. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had just approved a slightly weaker version of the brutal anti-homosexuality bill that he signed into law this past Monday. Frank reportedly told Kim that support from the United States and other donors could be in jeopardy if “the bank goes ahead and gives all this money to Uganda right after signing that terrible law.”