Aid transparency yes, civic space clampdown no

I want to be clear about where I stand on the Foreign Aid Regulation, Transparency and Inclusion Bill, 2026 (SB1034), sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo. I strongly support the transparency half of this bill. I do not support the parts that put civil society organisations under a compulsory registration and sanctions regime, because that machinery can be weaponised to restrict civic space.

What is worth keeping. The bill would make donor funding to government visible: a national database of aid inflows, integration into the national budget, and public disclosure of sources, project details and outcomes. That is the accountability citizens have been asking for. Let us keep it and strengthen it.

What worries me. The same bill makes registration of "all foreign aid and donor-funded projects" compulsory and attaches sanctions for non-registration. Applied to NGOs and advocacy groups, that is not transparency, it is a licence to operate that the government of the day can grant, delay or revoke. We have seen how "foreign funding" rules elsewhere become a tool to harass human rights defenders, journalists and election observers. A bill that carries "inclusion" in its title should not end up shrinking the civic space it claims to protect.

My proposal is to split the two ideas cleanly:

• Keep mandatory disclosure of aid flows: who funded what, how much, and to which agency or project, in a public registry.
• Drop any regime that makes a CSO's legal existence or right to operate depend on registering its foreign funding.
• Tie sanctions only to the real offences the bill already lists, namely diversion, misuse and false disclosure, not to the mere fact of receiving foreign support.
• Add an explicit safeguard clause protecting freedom of association and lawful advocacy.

The bill passed second reading and is now with the Senate Committees on National Planning (lead), Finance and Foreign Affairs, with a public hearing due. This is the window to get it right. Read it here: Foreign Aid Regulation, Transparency and Inclusion Bill, 2026.

If you believe we can have transparency without a clampdown on civil society, like this idea and share it so the committee hears it before the report is written.