The European Commission is preparing to send €7 million ($7.4 million) to the Ugandan finance ministry to help fight Ebola, contradicting the approach of the United States whose ambassador says the risk of corruption remains too high to channel money through the government.
An outbreak of the virus in September has claimed 55 deaths in the east-central African nation, including another 22 probable cases, all of whom died, according to the World Health Organization.
The commission, the European Union’s executive body, initially provided €3.2 million through WHO, UNICEF, and the International Rescue Committee in response to the latest outbreak.
Now, a commission spokesperson told Devex that it is “working to mobilise an additional €7 million in Budget Support for the Ministry of Finance to help the government of Uganda alleviate the socio-economic impacts of the Ebola epidemic.”
Some €1 million of the €7 million will go to “strengthening the government’s public financial management system,” including through “technical assistance in public finance management for service delivery and oversight, as well as other areas such as sustainable resource mobilisation, planning and budgeting.”
“This would help the government ensure that the resources allocated to the Ministry of Health in response to the outbreak are properly allocated and accounted for,” the commission spokesperson emailed this week.
Others are not convinced.
The U.S. ambassador to Uganda Natalie E. Brown was quoted last month saying that donor funds not reaching their intended recipients due to corruption is “a very real and serious challenge. And that is also one of the reasons why we work with so many partners instead of providing budgetary support."
A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development told Devex this week that since the Ebola outbreak was declared on Sept. 20 the U.S. government has channeled more than $33 million, “largely through implementing partners and UN agencies, to support the Government of Uganda-led Ebola response.”
“The vast majority of U.S. assistance in Uganda and elsewhere around the world is primarily provided through partner organizations, including local organizations and civil society groups. Our health assistance supporting Uganda’s Ebola response is no different,” the USAID spokesperson wrote. “We are in real-time near continuous contact with Uganda Ministry of Health leadership. Our support for the Ebola response is closely coordinated with the Ministry.”
Kristof Titeca, a professor of the politics of development at the University of Antwerp, welcomed EU funding for the Ebola response but questioned the decision to channel it through the government.
Titeca told Devex by email this week that corruption in Uganda has not improved since budget support was suspended by many donors, including the EU, a decade ago. Brussels resumed some funding through the government in 2018, however, Titeca argued in a recent policy paper that any decision to channel Ebola support through local authorities “would be a remarkable decision, in the current governance context.”
He pointed to a recent report by the Ugandan Auditor General that showed mismanagement of donor funds for the country’s COVID-19 response. And Titeca also questioned the “political signal” sent by the EU’s move to provide budget support. “There were last year’s elections which were considered particularly fraudulent,” he wrote to Devex, “and there’s the human rights abuses, such as the ongoing abductions.”
The likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both reported violence and oppression against political opponents of the government in Uganda.
“The 2021 elections were not only marred by widespread fraud, the election campaign was also characterized by a campaign of abduction, and torture, of Ugandan civilians,” Titeca noted in his recent paper. “Around 1000 people were kidnapped—many members of the National Unity Party (NUP), Bobi Wine’s party—often suffering torture, beatings, and other abuses.”
The additional commission money would come from the 11th European Development Fund, an off-budget instrument that is being phased out of EU development policy but which Brussels has tapped this year to respond to challenges such as the global food crisis. The commission spokesperson told Devex: “This reallocation should be finalised in the coming weeks, after all administrative procedures are completed.”
The Ugandan embassy in Brussels did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About the author
Vince Chadwickvchadw
Vince Chadwick is a contributing reporter at Devex. A law graduate from Melbourne, Australia, he was social affairs reporter for The Age newspaper, before covering breaking news, the arts, and public policy across Europe, including as a reporter and editor at POLITICO Europe. He was long-listed for International Journalist of the Year at the 2023 One World Media Awards.
