By Nicholas Bariyo
KAMPALA Uganda--Sweden has resumed financial aid to Uganda, less
than six months after the Scandinavian country suspended its
support following the enactment of a severe anti gay law.
The Swedish embassy in Kampala said Monday that Sweden would
extend around $200 million in development support to Uganda over
the next five years, to improve the country's health care,
including sexual and reproductive health and strengthen the
"respect of human rights."
The development is a huge relief for Uganda, which depends on
aid to provide healthcare at nearly all state-run hospitals across
the country. The move comes just a few weeks after Uganda's foreign
ministry said that donors who withheld millions of aid over the
anti-gay law had "misinterpreted" it.
"Sweden wants to help create better conditions in Uganda for
sustainable economic growth and development... Sweden continues to
support human rights and freedom from violence," Sweden's Minister
for International Development Cooperation, Hillevi Engstrom,
said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in February signed into law
the highly controversial anti gay bill, which imposes jail terms of
up to life in prison for some homosexual acts, drawing the ire of
international donors.
Sweden was among the first donor nations to freeze aid to
Uganda, saying that the law threatened its "economic cooperation"
with Kampala. Soon after other donors including the World Bank,
Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands responded by suspending or
redirecting up to $120 million in aid.
Days after signing the law, the Ugandan shilling suffered its
biggest drop against the dollar in two years and the currency has
since dropped by nearly 5%.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@dowjones.com