Could An Anti-LGBTQ Bill Damage Ghana's Economy?

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This week, we're heading to Ghana. Recently, the country has made headlines for anti LGBTQ legislation that, if passed, could have implications on Ghana's effort to reboost its economy.

For Ghana, there's a human rights issue, but there is also a very critical economic issue because it's trying to work through this dead crisis.

In May, the country Supreme Court started hearing legal arguments on a bill that seeks to punish people who identify as LGBTQ. This week, I discussed with Bloomberg Senior reporter Yinka Ibukhan, who's based in Akra, about the possible consequences of this legislation being approved not only for Ghana, but also for the international financial institutions. I'm Jennifer's Abisaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent driving the future of global

Thanks for having me.

You recently wrote an article about the proposed human sexual Rights and Family Values bill in Ghana. You're sitting in Akra right now, so you're perfectly primed to give us an overview of it. What does it entail?

This bill punishes identifying as LGBTQ with up to three years in jail. It criminalizes LGBTQ groups, It criminalizes support for LGBTQ groups. But it also forces people to report anyone who they know is LGBTQ or also face punishment. And that could include teachers, coworkers, and even family members. So in that sense, it's quite a draconian bill, even when you look at other anti LGBTQ.

Bills that have spread. This bill was a long time coming.

It was introduced in parliament in twenty twenty one in Ghana.

Those in favor and those against say no a Human Sexual Arized and Family Values Bill twenty twenty one. It's read a third time and passed.

But only in February was it passed by lawmakers. Now, two citizens are challenging the bill's constitutionality as a Supreme Court. Actually they're challenging its constitutionality. Ghana is a signatory to a lot of human rights agreements.

The argument is that this bill.

Goes against these agreements, but also goes against Ghana's own constitution, including the rights of association, the freedom of expression, which are also challenged by this bill.

So this could potentially mean a number of implications for Ghana if this actually becomes law. Can you explain that.

I mean, the first implication for this kind of bill for any country, including Ghana, is that you're restricting the rights of your LGBTQ minority. So that in itself is a big implication. But in addition to that, Ghana is on a pretty precarious situation because it's actually currently going through a debt crisis and really needs all the financial

So let's pick that apart, Yinka just a bit. You mentioned the IMF and the World Bank. What are their stances right now in terms of non discrimination to those who they're lending to.

So the standards of non discrimination impact all marginalized groups in recipient countries of development finance support, so that includes women,

When you put it like that, Yinka, it seems very clear that these laws would not be beneficial to Ghana potentially getting funding from these institutions. But it also puts these institutions in a pretty difficult situation that they have to essentially walk a fine line in terms of what they are policing and what they're not.

It's definitely a fine line because any stance they take openly would be perceived as Western influence. Even though the World Bank is the World Bank, there's this sense that it is a Western organization and that it shouldn't be imposing Western values on countries because it is very much being framed as.

A sovereignty issue.

But that's the framing of the situation, and that makes it more difficult for organization perceived as Western like the World Back and the ims to speak against it or act against it. But there's also some dishonesty about the bills because we're framing it as a sovereignty issue. But these ideas actually in large part exports it.

When you say, Yinka that these family values not necessarily are coming from Ghana or from Africa, I mean, where would you say they originate from? Then? How did this become an African story in twenty twenty four.

So it's actually well documented that there is so called pro family movement that's come mostly from the US that is spreading this anti LGBTQ agenda, and you're seeing it in the US with a legislation against the abortion, against the just restricting access to contraceptives, this idea that you know, you need to protect the family by ensuring that women can have as many children as possible.

And also the family in that.

Context is defined as the union between a man and a woman who have a responsibility to create to keep the population growing, and so anything that's seen as challenging that, including having same sex unions or same sex couples, is something that this group, which is mostly far right US evangelical is spreading and in Africa it's gotten more attraction than elsewhere, and so Ghana is only one of the pieces where it's had an influence.

After the break, we'll discuss why anti LGBTQ laws are spreading across the continent and zero in on Uganda's recently passed legislation.

Ghana is the latest African country to Pastor Konian laws aimed at the community, after Uganda introduced harsh new measures last year.

Okay, Yinka, let's focus on another country. We've just heard there that Uganda passed similar legislation to what we are seeing in Ghana. Remind us what happened there.

Uganda has in a way become the original headquarters for this mostly US led pro family movement, and in twenty four team introduced for the first time anti LGBTQ legislation that was considered quite draconian, so much so that it was called the Kilder Gays Bill. That legislation was eventually struck out by the courts, but was reintroduced very recently and became law in twenty twenty three. As much as

And Yinka, maybe let's go back to Ghana. Of the people you spoke with in the country and in particular the economic consequences of this potential bill if it were to become law, what are their biggest concerns about this?

I mean, the average Canayan is not really following the legal process that's leading to this bill, and even less looking at the economic implication. They're facing enough challenges with higher inflation, high cost of living, a depreciating currency.

They have a lot on their hands.

They're not really looking at the LGBTQ minority and what Parliament is doing. However, Ghana is in an election year, so what you're seeing is that politicians and religious.

Leaders, traditional leaders.

Are politicizing this bill and kind of making it a bigger deal than it is to the average Ghanian. But because it's election, everything is a big deal right now. Everything is a potential to sway the vote one way.

Or the other.

I mean, back to the funding aspect of it, because you bring up the struggles that the Ghanaian economy is going through. I mean, what does that mean then? For potential funding from the World Bank, Is that on hold until we get more clarity on this bill.

No, now it's business as usual. Everything is continuing. The stands of the World Bank is that it doesn't comment on a bill, it has to wait for it to become law. So for now everything continues as usual. But we do know that in Uganda after the bill became law, the World Bank halted new funding to Uganda, so there is a precedent for halting funding to a country that adopts anti LGBTQ legislation. But as far as Ghana goes, this is still the bill. World Bank is still funding.

Point and our thanks to Yinka there for that reporting. As Yinka described, the family values movement is coming at a time where sub Saharan Africa is facing an acute funding squeeze spurned on by higher borrowing costs in the West, so support from the international institutions is critical. But also critical is how these financial lenders handle the erosion of human rights in Ghana and how that could potentially set a precedent for what we're likely to see in other countries.