{"id":3233,"date":"2014-11-30T13:53:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T08:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2014-11-30T13:53:42","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T08:08:42","slug":"the-world-banks-uneasy-relationship-with-lgbti-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/the-world-banks-uneasy-relationship-with-lgbti-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"The World Bank’s uneasy relationship with LGBTI rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu (Pahichan) November 30 – The U.S. Agency for International Development<\/a>\u00a0and other bilateral donors announced last week a new commitment to infuse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights into their development agendas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move, however, left some activists and civil society leaders to wonder: Where does the world\u2019s largest multilateral donor stand on LGBTI rights?<\/p>\n

The World Bank<\/a>\u00a0and its president, Jim Yong Kim, have taken a more subtle and less direct approach to LGBTI issues, navigating political pressures and ethical concerns against the backdrop of a mandate which bars the institution from meddling in the political affairs of member countries.<\/p>\n

The Washington, D.C.-based institution\u2019s 1944 Articles of Agreement<\/a>\u00a0state that the bank \u201cshall make arrangements to ensure that the proceeds of any loan are used only for the purposes for which the loan was granted \u2026 without regard to political or other noneconomic influences or considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engaging in LGBTI rights \u2014 and human rights more generally \u2014 is therefore a tricky issue for the World Bank, whose member countries don\u2019t all maintain clean human rights records or even see a connection between advancing human rights and growing an economy.<\/p>\n

Bilateral donors such as USAID and the U.K. Department for International Development<\/a>\u00a0\u201chave only a domestic authorizing environment to deal with. That is, the British Parliament or the U.S. Congress,\u201d explained Paul Cadario, senior fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and a former senior manager at the bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd from that point of view, it\u2019s a little easier for them to take positions on things,\u201d he told Devex.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the World Bank\u2019s LGBTI strategy tends to be more guarded because it could otherwise be seen by some members as interfering in domestic political affairs.<\/p>\n

Efforts to mainstream LGBTI rights<\/h2>\n

Despite the anchor of the 1944 Articles of Agreement, there have been significant efforts from within the bank \u2014\u00a0particularly in the last two years \u2014\u00a0to mainstream LGBTI rights into the development agenda by demonstrating that countries pay an economic cost for discriminating against sexual minorities.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the World Bank received a grant from the Nordic Trust Fund to survey and gather socio-economic data on sexual minorities in India and develop an economic model that measures the financial cost of excluding the LGBTI community.<\/p>\n

Fabrice Houdart, senior country officer for the Maghreb and president of the bank\u2019s LGBT employee resource group \u2014 known as GLOBE \u2014 manages the grant, which wraps up at the end of this month. As part of the closeout, the institution plans to release comprehensive research findings. Earlier this year, economist M.V. Lee Badgett already published some of the findings, which showed discrimination of sexual minorities costs India billions of dollars.<\/a><\/p>\n

If robust economic arguments can be made for the incorporation of LGBTI rights into development policies, proponents of an LGBTI agenda at the World Bank hope it will be mainstreamed the same way anti-corruption policies have \u2014\u00a0policies which not too long ago were considered meddling in the political affairs of member countries (and surely still are in some quarters).<\/p>\n

Kim, too, has recently taken steps to address LGBTI rights. In early 2014, the World Bank chief temporarily froze a $90 million loan to Uganda\u2019s health sector<\/a>\u00a0following the country\u2019s adoption of an anti-gay law<\/a>. Shortly thereafter, he published an op-ed in the Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0entitled \u201cThe high costs of institutional discrimination.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Calling the fight to eliminate \u201call\u201d institutionalized discrimination an \u201curgent task,\u201d Kim promised to have a \u201cfull internal discussion over the coming months\u201d about discrimination and how it affects the bank\u2019s projects and employees.<\/p>\n

Uganda\u2019s Constitutional Court has since declared the law invalid, but the bill\u2019s proponents have vowed to challenge the ruling.<\/p>\n

Critics on both sides<\/h2>\n

Kim was criticized for his decision to withhold Uganda\u2019s loan.<\/p>\n

An April 2014 article in The Economist<\/a>\u00a0called his sudden focus on gay rights \u201carbitrary,\u201d and pointed out that Uganda was one of many member countries with anti-gay policies, and argued that adding conditions to World Bank lending undermines the institution\u2019s overarching goal to end extreme poverty by 2030.<\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s move, the magazine\u2019s editorial board said, \u201cis having perverse results, where it matters most\u201d and could\u00a0encourage some member countries to seek funds from other donors such as China, which won\u2019t impose what some see as \u201cWestern values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since February, the World Bank president has dialed down the public rhetoric on LGBTI rights and human rights more generally. Last month, Kim spoke at Howard University to emphasize the bank\u2019s mission of ending poverty and spreading justice; he was later called out by Philip Alston, the U.N. Human Rights Council\u2019s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, for not mentioning human rights at all in his speech.<\/p>\n

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See more news on LGBTI rights:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25cf USAID, top donors to mainstream LGBTI rights in development programs<\/a>
\n\u25cf How Uganda’s anti-gay law can undermine HIV and AIDS response<\/a>
\n\u25cf One step forward, two steps back? The gaps between LGBTI policy and practice in foreign aid<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a Washington Post op-ed<\/a>, the U.N. official criticized the bank for not going \u201cnear human rights with a 10-foot pole.\u201d The World Bank is a key actor in the human rights and development debate, Alston emphasized; its policies, or lack thereof, carry a great deal of weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving no human rights policy, or remaining neutral, sends a clear message to the world,\u201d Alston argued.<\/p>\n

The World Bank\u2019s culture<\/h2>\n

Kim and his senior management team may be treading carefully for political reasons. But some within the walls of the institution feel the bank\u2019s reluctance to address LGBTI rights, as well as adopt a policy specifically focused on human rights, stems from its institutional culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a huge culture problem,\u201d a World Bank official who wished to remain anonymous in order to discuss internal matters told Devex.<\/p>\n

Some employees feel that macroeconomics and sexual orientation or gender identity are separate issues, the source suggested, and that conflating them could \u201cundermine the credibility of the World Bank as a serious institution that is in the business of eliminating poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cadario, one of the founders of GLOBE, disagreed with the contention that macroeconomists can\u2019t champion human rights concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Bank has always been criticized for having too many economists and on certain days I would agree with them,\u201d Cadario said. \u201cBut I think that the bank is a pretty liberal place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of bank culture, the conversation around human rights has to change, according to Adebisi Alimi, a prominent gay rights activist who gained notoriety in the late 2000s when he became the first Nigerian to publicly reveal his homosexuality on national television and now works as a consultant for the World Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman rights is a development issue,\u201d Alimi told Devex. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that when I have my consultation with the World Bank, the World Bank says, we don\u2019t do human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

A step-by-step approach<\/h2>\n

The coming months may reveal a great deal about the fate of LGBTI rights within the World Bank\u2019s development strategy, as the complete findings from the study commissioned by the Nordic Trust Fund grant are set to be published at the end of November.<\/p>\n

The institution has been holding meetings around the world on its draft safeguards policy<\/a>, which is expected to be finalized next year and \u2014 civil society leaders and LGBTI activists hope \u2014 could feature human rights issues prominently, providing a framework for future bank involvement in countries with poor human rights records.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that human rights are mentioned in the draft safeguard policies I think is big step forward,\u201d Cadario said.<\/p>\n

Houdart, who claims to be under investigation for allegedly leaking an early draft of the institution\u2019s safeguards in July, will be handing over leadership of GLOBE in January.<\/p>\n

Despite the bank\u2019s uneasy relationship with the LGBTI community, some gay rights advocates are confident that the process of mainstreaming them is underway. For Cadario, it\u2019s also in the bank\u2019s best interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a global corporation, you have anti-discrimination provisions because your shareholders and customers demand them. Supply chains are pretty visible in world trade. I imagine this will extend to banks, too. The World Bank would not want to be the odd financing source out, and perhaps scare off potential investors in International Finance Corp.<\/a>\u00a0operations or PPPs the bank and a government were organizing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The key will be for the bank to seek out those countries and leaders that are not averse to considering sexual orientation, gender identity and economic growth in concert and find support from an institution with the global credibility to provide it.<\/p>\n

Mainstreaming LGBTI rights for the World Bank, in any case won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n

Join the <\/em>Devex community<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and access more in-depth analysis, breaking news and business advice \u2014 and a host of other services \u2014 on international development, humanitarian aid and global health.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source : https:\/\/www.devex.com\/news\/the-world-bank-s-uneasy-relationship-with-lgbti-rights-84896<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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