HL Deb 05 February 1998 vol 585 cc128-9WA
Lord Lucas

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the amount of:

  1. (a) bilateral aid; and
  2. (b) the United Kingdom's share of multilateral aid,

which is expected to be allocated to Uganda in 1997–98; and how much of that aid will be channelled through the Ugandan Government. [HL402]

Lord Whitty:

(a) We expect to disburse approximately £49 million of bilateral development assistance to Uganda in 1997–98. Of this, £19 million will be for budgetary assistance to the Government of Uganda, in the form of reimbursement for expenditure on primary education and other priority areas of the budget. £6.5 million is being committed to an African Development Bank Trust Fund to support debt relief for Uganda under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Approximately £15 million of our assistance involves support for GoU institutions, which is linked to UK technical assistance and related equipment and other costs funded directly by the Department for International Development. Smaller amounts are being channelled through a variety of non-government organisations and agencies.

(b) Based on disbursement profiles for previous years, we estimate that total multilateral disbursements to Uganda in 1997 will be in the region of £220 million, with an estimated UK share of approximately £15 million. The bulk of such assistance is likely to be channelled through the Government of Uganda.