Like other African states, the Republic of the Congo is experiencing very strong population growth. Children and young people under 25 years make up the majority of the total population and are especially vulnerable where alcohol and drug abuse is concerned. In addition to poverty and unemployment, family problems, difficulties in the social environment, peer pressure, lack of awareness of the dangers of alcohol, easy access to alcohol and insufficient law enforcement are all reasons to reach for the bottle. Since 2013, IBC has been implementing its Life Skills and Peer Education programme in middle schools in the capital Brazzaville. Together with national ministers and stakeholders from local organisations, Blue Cross members are present in a political forum to promote the inclusion of the programme into the national school curriculum of Congo.

As in all IBC project countries, alcohol is one of the biggest obstacles to sustainable development in the Republic of Chad. With high urbanisation pressure, many African societies are at risk for rising alcohol consumption rates. The Republic of Chad, the fifth largest country in Africa, hereby has a particularly high rate of alcohol consumption. On the one hand, 70 per cent of the population is abstinent. However, on the other hand, the remaining population’s consumption of 33.9 litres of pure alcohol annually makes it the country with the highest per capita rate in the world. Since 2013, IBC and Blue Cross Chad, therefore, have conducted the Life Skills and Peer Education Programme with vulnerable youth. Prevention activities include young motor taxi drivers. They are among the most severely affected and at the same time a “difficult to reach”-youth group. Denied the opportunity of early education, they lack perspectives and are especially exposed to the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. Currently, activities mainly take place in the capital N´Djamena, with expansion developing to further regions. As in our programme in the Republic of Congo, IBC and the local Blue Cross are taking part in a working group promoting the inclusion of the Life Skills and Peer Education Programme into the public school curriculum.

In Togo, young people under the age of 25 make up 60 percent of the total population. They are particularly susceptible to drug and alcohol consumption. More than 50 percent of the male and approximately five percent of the female population practise binge-drinking (excessive consumption of alcohol in the shortest possible time). Motorcycle taxi drivers in Togo are among the most affected and also the hardest to reach youngsters. Alcohol and the drug « Tramadol » are readily available among them. Accidents which endanger not only the drivers themselves, but also their customers and passersby are the consequence. The programme in Togo is based on IBC’s programmes in the Republic of Chad and the Republic of the Congo which have both been very well received by the population and political decision-makers since 2013.

Alcohol consumption in Tanzania is at a problematic level and shows unhealthy patterns. Compared to the African average of 6,3 litres per capita, the consumption in Tanzania is annually very high, with 9,4 litres of pure alcohol consumed per capita. Especially young people between 15 and 19 years of age engage in highly problematic consumption patterns: More than 70 % of the boys and around 35 % of the girls practise heavy episodic drinking, meaning they consume very high amounts of alcohol in a short time. In general, alcohol harm is a much bigger problem among the male population, roughly 62 % of women abstain completely from drinking alcohol, whereas only 32 % of men renounce alcohol in general. Nevertheless, alcohol harm is not a “men´s problem” in Tanzania. The alcohol consumption of a man has an impact on the social and economic situation of his family and often causes violence, poverty and bad mental and physical well-being for those dependent on him. Seeing the need for change, IBC has begun to implement its successful Life Skills Prevention programme with its local partner in Arusha in 2020.