KAMPALA, May 17, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A World Bank-commissioned report has recommended aid cuts to Uganda over the next three years, warning that recent political developments have jeopardized the country's development agenda.
The report was quoted by the government owned newspaper, the New Vision as saying that recent political developments in Uganda are likely to undermine the country's admirable record through the late 1990's.
The report recommends that the World Bank should plan for the possibility of a low case lending program in Uganda during the period of forthcoming Country Assistance Strategy.
Low case means reducing aid to a bare minimum, which in Uganda' s case would limit it to humanitarian issues.
It also recommends that the World Bank and other donors must rethink the appropriateness of continued budget support, and especially, the appropriateness of increasing budget support.
The 74-paged report commissioned to establish the risk to World Bank lending programs in Uganda also recommends that the bank should move to closely-monitored project lending in the on going three-year aid program up to 2008. The government has however been urging donors to shift further to budget support, where the government decides how to allocate funds.
The World Bank-commissioned report comes after the Irish government announced that it is likely to cut aid to Uganda.
Weeks ago, the British government withheld aid to Uganda worth 9.9 million dollars, citing inconsistencies in the political transition that the country is currently going through.
Meanwhile, local media reported on Tuesday that Ugandan Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi has called a key cabinet meeting to discuss growing donor concerns over the political transition, human rights violations, and grand corruption.
The cabinet meeting, which comes after a meeting of the Donor Democracy and Governance Group (DDGG) last week, is supposed to come up with a common position before Prime Minister Nsibambi meets the DDGG over the issues the donors have raised.
DDGG comprises envoys of Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States as well as the United Nations Resident Representative
On various occasions, the Uganda government has protested against what it called donor interference in Uganda's domestic issues.
Prime Minister Nsibambi recently observed that donors can not dictate what Uganda should do.