{{Seven out of the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are substantially hindered by heavyalcohol consumption that negatively affects them all, research findings have indicated.}}
International Evidence shows that alcohol is a cross-cuttingrisk factor in many areas of public health, as well associal vices, from child health, non-communicable and communicable diseasesincluding STIs and HIV/AIDS, gender based violence and crimes, to economic and social development, grossly hindering sustainable development of households, communities and societies.
{{MDG 1}}: Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger: Poverty is in different ways exacerbated by alcohol use: We see in communities throughout the East African Community (EAC) disastrous alcohol expenditure; the pattern is one where bread winners, in most cases men, divert meager family resources meant for food and other household needs to their alcohol habit due to chronic alcohol dependence. In addition, home brewed traditional alcoholic beverages mostly use ingredients that are common household food grains, such as maize, millet, sorghum and cassava.
Thus this practice depletes food supply at household and community levels. The ultimate consequences of thesepractices leadto food insufficiency, hunger and a poor diet in the family which in turn leads to avoidable illness especially for children. Moreover, alcoholism causes bad health to the consumer, hence dramatically reducing their chances of earning income for household use.
Alcohol addiction also leads to excessive use of family resources to feed the addictive habit, further depriving family members of social opportunities such as education, drawing them deeper into abject poverty, without future prospects to get out of the vicious cycle, as many who grow under such conditions, themselves pick up the alcoholic tendencies.
{{MDG 2}}: Achieve universal primary education: Many of the staff in educational sector have fallen victims to alcohol abuse and hence frequent absenteeism and lack of professionalism in schools. In homes, alcohol poses competition with among others educational resources and hence increasing the dropout rates of school goers.Availability of alcohol to school going youth is also a major concern likely to significantly affect completion rates.
{{MDG3}}: Promote gender equality and empower women: Evidence shows that alcohol is a huge factor behind gender based violence. In addition to that, aggressive alcohol marketing techniques of the alcohol industry in the EAC, amplify the common belief of masculine superiority over females, perpetuating objectification and sexualization of women and girls and justify male demonstration of power.
Emerging evidence further shows that alcohol fuels violence against women up to a factor of 3 to four times over the situation where no alcohol is used. Some of these acts of violence include rape and battering, which are not only demeaning but bring about life threatening psychological repercussions.
{{MDG 4}}: Reduce Child Mortality: Where alcohol consumption is excessive, there is poor family planning and poor care for the household dependents, as most household income is spent on alcohol consumption and not on essential household needs like good nutrition and other needs.
Infant mortality is exacerbated by poor maternal diet during pregnancy and lack of care. Inadequate family planning as happens when the male or both spouses are alcohol consumers leads to unplanned pregnancies and increase infant mortality due to many predisposing factors during the pregnancy period.
{{MDG 5}}: Improved Maternal Health: Alcohol consumption as normally happens by the male partners substantially raises violence against women partners. Acts of violence including harassment, battering,and rape render women physically weak and mentally depressed, contributing to general poor health and especially poor pregnancy outcomes for either mother or the newborn infant.
Improvement in maternal health cannot be attained where heavy alcohol drinking prevails, due to the preferential resource allocation to alcohol drinking rather than household utilization. Drunken violence also brings about mental problems, and when this happens in pregnancy, it makes a bad situation much worse.
{{MDG 6}}: Combat HIV/ AIDS, Malaria and TB: Accumulatingresearch evidence has confirmed the symbiotic relationship between alcohol and HIV/AIDS and TB, as alcohol consumption seriously reduces immunity, thereby increasing the chances for contracting infection.
Alcohol intoxication impairs judgment leading to risky sexual behavior. Intoxication also makes ART drug use compliance erratic, leading to poor treatment outcomes. Alcohol has also been overtly implicated asa leading risk factor in manyNon-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, andnow these are on a steep rise in the EAC countries.
{{MDG 7}}: Ensure environmental sustainability: Investigations into alcohol production process shows environmental abuse. For instance, in many cases, more than 25 liters of water are needed in order to produce just one liter of beer, not to mention the large land expanses of land used for cultivating wheat, barley and other agricultural products used as raw materials for malt and alcohol production.
Trees are being cut down, water and air polluted for the case of local alcohol production. Packaging of alcohol in sachets has also led to environmental concerns.
Leave a Reply