On Friday the 29^th of April 2022, the Ministry of Health, Uganda Alcohol Policy Alliance and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Mental Health organized an alcohol harm prevention capacity building workshop for Members of Parliament at Imperial Royale Hotel in Entebbe. 

Keen emphasis of this workshop was to educate the members of parliament on the dangers of unregulated use of alcohol in Uganda, sharing about the existing interventions to combat alcohol-related harm as well as mobilizing action on road map for alcohol control bill in Uganda.

The workshop was divided into 3 sessions of presentations and Questions-and-Answers sessions;

The morning session had it’s theme on “Extent of alcohol harm” with it’s moderator being Dr. Brian Mutamba. 

Presentation 1 from Professor Nazarius Mbona Tumwesigye from Makerere University School of Public Health on the “Extent of burden for alcohol harm in Uganda”.

Cuthbert made presentation 2 from Uganda Road Accidents Reduction Network on “Alcohol and Accidents in Uganda”. 

Dr. Brian Mutamba, National Mental Referral Hospital, Butabika on “Alcohol, mental health and addiction”, delivered presentation 3.

The mid-morning session had “Evidence-based interventions against alcohol harm” as it’s theme and it was moderated by Dr. Makumbi Gerald Majellah. 

Presentation 4 came in from Dr. Kalema David from Uganda Alcohol Policy Alliance titled “Civil society responses against alcohol harm”.

Dr. Kalani Kenneth made presentation 5 from the Ministry of Health on the “SAFER Initiative for Alcohol control”.

The afternoon session came in with “Changing the Alcohol Legislative landscape in Uganda” as its theme and Ms. Namukasa Juliet as its moderator. 

Presentation 6 was made by Maik Dunnbier, the Director of Strategy and Advocacy at Movendi International on “Lessons from other countries on successful prevention of alcohol harm”.

Presentation 7 was supposed to have been delivered by Dr. Hafsa Lukwata on “Alcohol Legislative framework in Uganda; Strengths, Opportunities and Gaps”. 

Hon. Sarah Opendi on the “Overview of the current Alcohol bill and next steps” delivered presentation 8.

The final presentation of the day came in from Dr. Kalema David as a reflection on the “civil society perspectives on structure and content of the Alcohol Control Bill”.