UK Gave $166k to Anti-LGBTQ Group in Uganda, Where Gay People Face Death Penalty

At least $40 million of international aid funding has been given to anti-LGBTQ religious groups in Uganda since 2014, a new report shared with VICE World News has revealed.

Earlier this year Ugandan politicians passed one of the world’s most draconian anti-LGBTQ laws, where people could be jailed just for being gay or given the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”

But a new report published by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change, a new initiative set up by international journalists and activists, revealed that millions of dollars have been granted to groups such as the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), the influential conservative religious group which has pushed for laws against homosexuality for over a decade. The IRCU attempted, and failed, to introduce anti-gay laws in 2014 due to international scrutiny – but this year Ugandan MPs were able to pass it. 

The council lost US aid funding in 2014 during the Obama administration after it came out in support of Uganda’s anti-gay law, and was extremely influential in getting the bill retabled in February 2023. 

The new bill has been condemned by the United Nations and politicians internationally, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who said the law would “undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS.” 

The report, which was funded by the African Women’s Development Fund and the Nebula fund advancing gender justice and LGBTQ rights, said that the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has distributed at least £130,000 in aid to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) since 2021 in two different initiatives. The UK donated more to projects involving anti-LGBTQ groups in Uganda than any other European backer, the report said.

The FCDO did not respond to VICE World News' requests for comment ahead of publication, but shortly after this story was published acknowledged that it had funded the IRCU from 2021-2023. The funding is understood to have stopped when the IRCU made public comments regarding the anti-gay bill in February 2023. An FCDO spokesperson said: “The UK government has long been at the forefront of promoting LGBT+ rights internationally and is concerned by the increasing criminalisation of LGBT+ persons in Uganda which threatens minority rights and risks persecution.

“All UK Aid partners are put through rigorous due diligence assessments before receiving any funding. The UK does not currently provide funding to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda.”

Under the UK aid-funded programme “Uganda – Open Society” the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda is listed as an “implementing partner” that has received £134,900 ($160,000) since 2021. The programme appears to be scheduled to operate until 2024. The activity is supposed to work in “democratic participation and civil society, media and free flow of information” and “human rights.”  

A further £2 million ($2.4 million) has been allocated for “support for feminist, women-led and women’s rights organisations and movements, and institutions” by the UK to an activity in which the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda is again an implementing partner. The group specifically received £72,473 as part of this funding which also started in 2021, and ends in 2024. 

Commenting, Robbie de Santos, the director of communications and external affairs at LGBTQ rights charity Stonewall, said: “We think that the UK government needs to act consistently on its commitment to promote the rights of LGBTQ+ people through its global work and ensure it actively avoids funding organisation that are campaigning against LGBTQ+ people’s and women's rights.”

The lead US government agency that administers aid and is also named in this report, told its author that “the USAID regularly reviews and assesses the work of our partners to ensure they are operating in a manner that is consistent with our values and takes appropriate actions in response. We take these commitments seriously and are looking into the matter further.”

As these are ongoing projects, it is not clear how much more money the IRCU may receive before they end. 

Other countries highlighted for their grants to Ugandan anti-LGBTQ religious groups since 2014 include the US, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Ireland, as well as the EU.

“Religion is the backbone of the anti-LGBT bill,” Edward Mutebi, a Ugandan activist and refugee who works with the Centre of Feminist Foreign Policy, told VICE World News: “The Ugandan churches have not stopped at anything, but shamefully went head to support the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 and 2023 of which both called for death sentence of victims.” 

The report also explores funding from the UN organisations UNDP and UNFPA as well as from private foundations, including the IKEA Foundation. It discusses the IKEA Foundation’s donations amounting around $70,000 in the last decade to a funding project that included the Pentecostal Assemblies of God in Uganda as an implementing partner.

In 2021, a Pentecostal Assemblies of God Uganda pastor said: “The Pentecostal Assemblies of God sees homosexuality as one of the immoral and ungodly acts that the Church needs to preach against and discourage.”

A spokesperson from the IKEA Foundation told VICE World News: “The project you refer to is related to a grant for Oxfam in 2016 to strengthen the capacity of local and national humanitarian organisations in Uganda to lead emergency response. It was aimed at building local ability to respond to communities’ needs before, during and after crises through innovative funding and partnership models, such as cash and forecast-based financing. This project ended in 2021 and is no longer active. 

“In this case our grant was to Oxfam and we trusted Oxfam to identify the implementors, alliances and networks on the ground to achieve the project aims. The grant’s objective was to strengthen local capacity in the context of emergency response.  This particular project involved 60 local and national groups in Uganda that were sub contracted by Oxfam including Pentecostal Assemblies of God.  As our funding cannot be used to promote or advance any religious beliefs, we have approached Oxfam to understand more about the nature of this collaboration.”

“Any abuse is unacceptable and goes against the values we stand for. All our partners undergo a rigorous due diligence process and contractually commit to respect human rights, comply with applicable laws, and respect the principles and standards laid down in the IKEA Foundation Ethical Framework. In addition, our partners have an obligation to report any violations of said principles and standards, including violations by implementing partners.”