Could Africa’s anti-LGBT laws have financial implications?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ghana’s parliament has recently passed a tough new anti-LGBT bill.
President Nana Akufo-Addo hasn't yet signed it in to law, after warnings that it could threaten Ghana’s much needed donor funding from places like the World Bank and IMF.
Ghana is suffering a major economic crisis and last year had a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Other African countries have also brought in similar laws. But is it fair for international financial institutions to get involved in politics in this way?
Presenter: Ed Butler Producer: Immie Rhodes
(Image credit: AFP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.5 | Today, we're looking at a new controversial bill that activists in Ghana are saying |
| 0:10.5 | is making life intolerable for the LGBT community there. |
| 0:16.1 | It is criminalising allies. It is criminalising identity. That's what makes this law very dangerous for our |
| 0:25.1 | country and for our people. The bill isn't even in the statute books yet, but already Western |
| 0:30.7 | lending institutions say they might be ready to withhold financial aid if it goes ahead. So is it right that the World Bank and |
| 0:40.4 | IMF should punish borrowing nations for an anti-LGB stance? The IMF and the World Bank, are they |
| 0:47.9 | supposed to be dictators of national policy to countries or they're supposed to be banking institutions |
| 0:53.8 | where nations borrow |
| 0:55.8 | based on their rights. The politics of gay rights and development here on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:07.6 | The sound of a market in Accr, Garner's capital. |
| 1:13.5 | By reputation, this is meant to be one of West Africa's most vibrant, diverse and welcoming cities. |
| 1:20.3 | But it doesn't always feel like that these days. |
| 1:22.8 | At least not for everyone. |
| 1:25.2 | You drive in home, then you feel you are being followed. |
| 1:29.0 | You go to the mall and then you have to make sure you work with someone as a security protection |
| 1:35.5 | or you are at a restaurant. |
| 1:37.4 | Some people walk there and then they try to humiliate you. |
| 1:40.8 | And when you attack you there, they are safe. |
| 1:43.2 | That's McDarling Covener. He's an activist in Ghana's LGBT community. |
| 1:48.4 | Being openly gay in Ghana has been illegal on paper ever since independence from Britain in the |
| 1:54.3 | 1950s. But in the past, a blind eye has often been turned. Live and let live, you might say. Recently, though, a parliamentary |
... |
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