PRESS RELEASE
UK SUPPORTS UGANDA’S DEVELOPMENT
AND POLITICAL TRANSITION
Britain is committed to support Uganda’s continued development and progress in reducing poverty. Our two governments signed a new budget support arrangement last December for a grant of up to £145 million over the next three years to support implementation of the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP). We indicated at that time that we hoped to make available £40 million in financial year 2004/05, and £50 million in 2005/06.
This budget support arrangement is linked to reforms detailed in the PEAP, including macro-economic management and governance. The stability to continue to make such progress in reducing poverty will be helped by a legitimate process of political and constitutional change. Achieving the latter will involve:
- Establishment of the rules for multiparty competition, and the capacity to implement and monitor these, sufficiently far ahead of the 2006 elections;
- Separation of the organs of state from the Movement in law and practice;
- Unhindered and inclusive debate on political and constitutional reform, including freedom of press and association, and respect for human rights;
- Respect for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, constitutional processes and the strengthening of independent political institutions;
- Absence of significant physical intimidation or financial manipulation of the process of change.
These criteria on political transition are set out in our agreement with the government alongside others relating to macro-economic and sector policies and management. All the indicators are drawn from the PEAP and are designed to ensure our support is transparent and predictable. The next tranche of budget support falls in September when there will be an assessment of performance against all the agreed indicators. When our last release of budget support fell due in March we were concerned by several aspects of the transition, including that insufficient progress had been made towards establishing a fair basis for a multi-party system. We therefore decided then to withhold £5 million (out of the total of £40 million for the financial year).
Like other development partners, Britain welcomes the planned move to a multi-party system and the greater choice that will provide. Ugandans will decide who forms the next government and who leads it. Our hope is that they do so through a process that is fair.
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