ColaLife principle: local determination
January 31, 2010 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
A key principle of ColaLife is local determination of how the ColaLife opportunity is used in each location. I believe that this will be key to the sustainability of ColaLife. ColaLife must strengthen the existing public health infrastructure, not undermine it. This is a slide I use to explain this during the presentations I am giving at the moment.
The ColaLife model can be split into three elements. At the core we have a distribution mechanism - AidPods in Coca-Cola crates - which would be replicable across the whole of Africa. 80% of all the Coca-Cola produced in Africa is sold from bottles and crates of this size. In July 2008 The Economist reported that Africans buy 36 billion bottles of Coke a year. That’s an average of more than 30 bottles per person! So this is a formidable distribution channel and an incredible offer if Coca-Cola were to support it.
The plan is that this distribution mechanism would be offered across the whole of Africa to those with the long term responsibility, in each locality, for public health. This would normally be a range of partnerships between NGOs and the Government of the country. It would be up the Goverment/NGOs in each locality to decide whether they want to make use of this opportunity and if so, how to use it. Coca-Cola would be likely to put certain conditions on the use of this channel eg maximum weight per AidPod; maximum number of AidPods per crate; and content would be restricted to ’social products’.
On the input side, the local public health infrastructure (Goverment/NGOs) would decide what should go into the AidPods. This will vary from place to place and from season to season. Crucially, it is not up to Coca-Cola or ColaLife to say what goes in the AidPods. This needs to be determined by those with the long term responsibility for public health in a particular area.
It would also be the local public health infrastructure (Goverment/NGOs) who decide what happens to the AidPods when they reach their destination. The contents might be put on the shelves of the Coca-Cola retailer and sold. This would obviously depend on the nature of the social products involved. They may be collected by a community health worker and used to support a community health programme. The AidPods might contain diarrhoea treatment kits for new mothers and be collected by traditional village midwives or the local clinic. I am sure that there are many other options but the local health experts will be the best people to decide.
So, the roll-out of ColaLife, following successful trials, will empower the public health infrastructure in any particular locality. Not undermine it. And in remote areas it will provide a distribution mechanism that would be uneconomic to provide in any other way.
Fortunately, this principle is compatible with the position Coca-Cola would want to take. They would not want to put themselves in a position where they could be accused of meddling in areas beyond their areas of expertise or of undermining local, often fragile, public health infrastructure.
ColaLife presentation at TEDx London - Part 1 and Part 2
January 27, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
OK, I obviously need to polish my presentation techniques but for those who couldn’t be there, here is the presentation of the ColaLife story at the inaugural TEDx London event on 4 November 2009. Any comments?
New online campaigning handbook features ColaLife
January 17, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
This is a very accessible guide to online campaigning written by Jonathan Simmons and Amanda Prosser at publiczone. It’s just 30-odd pages with 11 top tips and features ColaLife as a case study along with Airplot!, the Atheist Bus and Blog Action Day. You can download the book from the publiczone website.
A to Z of 2010 ColaLife priorities
January 10, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
AidPod
Move from Mark III model through prototyping to manufacture for trials.
Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Do everything possible to win the Buckminster Challenge and generate as much PR as possible in the process.
Commitment
Continue to be totally committed to getting the ColaLife concept trialled and properly evaluated. Simon Berry to commit to ColaLife full time from June 2010.
Design
Design the processes needed to bring ColaLife to life including the systems to monitor and financially reward the delivery of AidPods.
Endorsement
Obtain high level, formal endorsement of the fact that the ColaLife concept needs to be properly tested and evaluated.
Funding
Raise the funding necessary to achieve the ColaLife objectives.
Give
Give all we can to tackle the totally unacceptable levels of child mortality in developing countries (currently around 20%).
Health
We are determined to have a global impact on the health and quality of life of citizens of developing countries.
Independent evaluation
Undertake an independent evaluation of the ColaLife trial to form the basis of the wider roll out of the concept across Africa and elsewhere.
Joining things up
Continue to be the glue that keeps unlikely partnerships together to foster the innovation required to solve of the planet’s most intractable problems (child mortality).
Kennedy
The John F Kennedy ?? would be the preferred evaluation partner for the ColaLife trials.
Learning Lab
The fieldwork Coca-Cola is undertaking in Tanzania is called the ‘Learning Lab’. Trialing of the ColaLife needs to be part of the Learning Lab’s programme of activities in 2010.
Micro-enterprise
To implement ColaLife in a way which financially rewards the micro-entrepreneurs that take Coca-Cola (and AidPods) the ‘last mile’.
Never forget
Never forget how devasting the loss of a child is to its parents.
Openness
Continue to run the ColaLife campaign and project using open innovation principles.
Presentations/PR
Seek as many opportunities as possible to tell the ColaLife story and further build support.
Queen
By the end of 2010 the Queen of England should know what ColaLife is.
Recognise
Continue to recognise the contributions supporters make to moving ColaLife forward.
SMS
Investigate how SMS-based systems can be used to monitor and reward AidPod delivery.
Trials
To undertake properly evaluated trials of the ColaLife concept in Tanzania. Not just ‘the ideas behind ColaLife’ that Coca-Cola has already committed to doing.
UnLtd
Submit a Level 2 application for an UnLtd Award to support the UK elements of ColaLife.
Vitamin Angels/Village Reach
Build alliances with organisations like these to make ColaLife a success.
WWW
Continue to use online, new media to support all aspects of the ColaLife project.
X = the % of children who die before their 5th birthday (currently 20%)
We want to reduce this in developing countries so that it compares to the level in more developed countries.
Young people
Continue to enthuse young people and provide opportunities from them to engage.
Zhit
I knew I shouldn’t have started this A to Z thing 
Thanks to Luke Berry for the hand-crafted font which was first used in the ColaLife animation.
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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