Who pays?
February 4, 2010 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
This tweet is a great starting point for a blog post. Thanks to @gentlemandad for posting it. I think it was in response to yesterday’s ColaLife principle: promoting micro-enterprise post where I made the case for Coca-Cola distributors to be paid for the safe delivery of AidPods.
The short answer is ‘I don’t know, it depends’. But the considered response is:
Although this is obviously a significant consideration which will have to be addressed, this is not the place to start. The starting point is the fact that 1 in 5 children in developing countries die before their 5th birthday and the majority die from preventable causes. The next question is ‘What should be done about this, if anything?’. If we agree that this is just not acceptable in the 21st Century, then the question turns to, ‘What can we do with the resources available to have the biggest impact?’.
Having got this far you need the most cost-effective means of doing everything: procuring the drugs; training the health workers; running awareness raising/training campaigns, distribution and so on. When it comes to distribution, especially to more remote areas, it will NOT be cost ineffective to set up a dedicated distribution system and maintain it. Piggybacking on existing distribution networks, like Coca-Cola’s, is going to be far more cost-effective, by an order of magnitude, even if you make micro-payments to those who undertake successful delivery.
ColaLife principle: promoting micro-enterprise
February 3, 2010 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
Image credit: Tielman Nieuwoudt
A key reason why Coca-Cola’s distribution network is so good in Africa is that there is money to be made by everyone involved in it. And those that make money from taking the bottles that ‘last mile’ are some of the poorest people on the continent. So giving a financial reward for the successful delivery of an AidPod will:
- Put money in the pockets of some of the poorest people in Africa;
- Help ensure that the ColaLife system is sustainable;
- Help deter corruption and mis-use of the distribution mechanism.
For these reasons we will develop systems to give a financial reward to those who deliver AidPods and those who act as receiving agents. We think that mobile phone based systems will provide the mechanism to support the confirmation of delivery and the payments this would trigger.
ColaLife principle: local determination
January 31, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a 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.
Top 10 achievements for 2009
December 31, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
1. Coca-Cola agree to trial ‘the ideas behind ColaLife’ on the BBC Radio 4 iPM programme on 25/4/09.
Here’s an extract (0:51):
The full interview is here (5:37):
2. AidPod design modified through to the ‘Mark III’ explained here:
3. Dame Barbara Stocking (Director, Oxfam GB) and Sir Bob Geldof give the ColaLife concept the thumbs up:
4. ColaLife headlines in NESTA’s Social By Social Handbock on social innovation.
5. ColaLife’s giant AidPod is displayed at NESTA and on the 4th plinth in Trafagar Square, London England. Sarah Brown tweets the event.
6. ColaLife brokers global partnership between Coca-Cola and international NGO, AED
7. ColaLife is incorporated as a not-for-profit organisation
8. ColaLife headlines at the Chain Reaction event and first TEDx London event
9. ColaLife makes it through to the second stage of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge
10. The ColaLife Development Plan was published
Here’s to 2010. 2010 is the year!
Is this the right order?!
Progress Report - 30/12/09
December 30, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Child at Rene MDC, Tanzania, November 2008
Image credit: Simon Berry
May 1988 - May 2008 - the first 7,305 days - no progress!
- May 1988 Had the idea while working on the British Aid Programme in NE Zambia that Coca-Cola’s distribution muscle could be used to distribute oral rehydration salts in developing countries
- I tried to promote the idea but made no progress at all!
May 2008 onwards- the last 578 days - real progress!
- 6/5/08 The presence of Coca-Cola’s Chief Executive at the Business Call To Action event re-kindled the idea. I contributed to the online blog saying: What about Coca Cola using their
distribution channels (which are amazing in developing countries) to distribute rehydration salts? Maybe by dedicating one compartment in every 10 crates as ‘the life saving’ compartment?’ (original live blog available here)
- 6/5/08 I decided to blog the idea and then follow-up by trying to get Coca-Cola’s attention. The blog post is here.
- After the blog post I tried to get the idea debated on the BBC Radio 4 iPM programme. I was successful on the 3rd attempt and after getting friends to support the idea on the iPM blog (see below).
- 6-14/5/08 I was in communication with Coca-Cola but could not get past the first line in Coca-Cola’s CSR department
- 16/5/08 Heard Annie Lennox on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. She said We can distribute Coca Cola all around the World but we can’t seem to get medication to save a child from something as simple as diarrhoea and I think that that is wrong. At this point I decided my blog post wasn’t going to be enough! I decided to set up a Facebook group to get people behind the idea.
- 18/5/08 Facebook Group formed.
- 19/5/08 #colalife tag set-up in hastags
- 21/5/08 Interviewed by Eddie Mair for the iPM Programme.
- 21-24/5/08 The iPM Team worked flat-out to create an amazing feature for the programme on 24/5/08 and this paid off handsomely
- 23/5/08 colalife tag establsished in del.icio.us
- 23/5/08 The iPM Team received a Written statement received from Coca Cola - ‘willing to talk’
- 24/5/08 The campaign was featured on iPM (BBC Radio 4)
- 24/5/08 As part of the iPM feature, Eve Graham (ex lead singer - The New Seekers) sang supporting lyrics to ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’.
- 27/5/08 Coca-Cola Reydration Project proposed on RSA Networks (RSA Members only)
- 1/6/08 The colalife ampaign was nominated for the New Media Awards
- 5/6/08 Telephone conference with Coca Cola’s Global Head of Stakeholder Relations and UK conterpart
- 13/6/08 Facebook Group grew from 0 to 2,115 in 26 days. Membership includes a ‘frontline’ Rehydration Project in India
- 16/6/08 Face to face meeting with Coca Cola’s Salvatore Gabola in Brussels.
- 3/7/08 Ran workshop at the 2gether08 Festival
- 3/7/08 Follow-up interview with the iPM Programme (video)
- 6/7/08 Coca-Cola’s Adrian Ristow sent his first diary note from Ethiopia
- 6/7/08 ColaLife Google Group established
- 6-20/7/08 Facebook bug did not allow Kate Andrews to be added as group administrator - Facebook Support contacted
- 13/7/08 Simon Berry interviewed on the BBC World Service
- 17/7/08 Progress Report (6th Facebook Newsletter) >>more
- 21/7/08 Kate Andrews became Admin of the Facebook Group (group size: 3,400)
- 29/7/08 Kate’s article published on Inhabitat.com
- Inhabitat article starts an avalanche of other artcles including on treehugger, trendhunter and many more.
- 3/8/08 ColaLife Flickr Group established
- 3/8/08 colalife.org domain name purchased
- 3/8/08 Aims & objectives finalised through Google Group
- 4/8/08 Colalife website and dedicated blog built by Facebook Group member Dave Briggs.
- 6/8/08 Facebook Group membership hits 4,000
- 14/8/08 First face-to-face meet-up of the ColaLife Group
- 20/8/08 Meeting with James Alexander, CEO, We Are What We Do
- 21/8/08 Interviewed for Common Ground Magazine (US) - feature to be published on 1/10/08
- 21/8/08 Responded to questions from El Mercurio, Chile
- 27/8/08 Facebook Group membership hits 5,000, Google group has 55 members, Flickr Group has 256 members
- 27/8/08 Progress Report >>more
- 31/8/08 Article published in the Sunday edition of El Mercurio, Chile. This is the first the ColaLife story has been printed on paper. >>more
- 1/9/08 ColaLife banner ads made available. >>more
- 8/9/08 Facebook group hits 5,500 - the number of children under the age of 5 that die each day in Africa. >>more
- 12/9/08 ColaLife ‘Buzz Monitor’ created using Pageflakes. >>more
- 15/9/08 talkSPORT interview. >>more
- 20/9/08 Excellent ‘Before and After’ ORS pictures found. >>more
- 4/10/08 ColaLife featured as a case study at ‘Social Activism Online’ conference. >>more
- 18/10/08 ColaLife press page created >>more
- 19/10/08 ColaLife Video for Google’s Project 10^100 published on YouTube. View the video on YouTube.
- 19/10/08 Application submitted to Google’s Project 10^100. >>more
- 25/10/08 Kate Andrews writes ColaLife Wikipedia Entry.
- 25/10/08 Coca-Cola invites ColaLife to Dar Es Salaam! >>more
- 1/11/08 Progress Report >>more
- 6/11/08 ColaLife Video for Google’s Project 10^100 made available for the iPod >>more
- 10/11/08 Skype call with ColaLife mentor Tielmann Nieuwoudt
- 15/11/08 Jess ponsford submits innovation ‘ColaLife Pod’ design ideas >>more
- 18/11/08 Facebook Group membership hit 7,000
- 20/11/08 BBC to cover the Tanzania Trip >>more
- 20/10/08 ColaLife case study presented at NCVO’s Collaboration conference
- 24/11/08 ColaLife plenary presentation at NCVO’s Info 2.0 conference >>more
- 24/11/08 Views of ColaLife Video for Google’s Project 10^100 hit 3,000
- 25/11/08 Kate Andrews presented ColaLife as a case study at KHiO, Oslo
National Academy of the Arts >>more
- 25-29/11/08 Simon Berry in Tanzania at the invitation of Coca-Cola >>more
- 25/11/08 Field trip to Manual Distribution Centres (MDCs) in Dar Es Salaam >>more
- 26/11/08 Stakeholder meeting convened by Coca-Cola in Dar Es Salaam
- 26/11/08 Made prototype ‘ColaLife Pods’ >>more
- 27/11/08 Field trip with Benito Xaverly - ‘ColaLife Pods’ discussed on video >>more
- 28/11/08 Met with Dr Jane Miller, PSI, Dar Es Salaam. PSI are potential partners in the trialing of the ColaLife idea >>more
- 4/12/08 interviewed by Nigel Courtney for NESTA Innovation Handbook
- 5/12/08 Live interview on newstalk Radio, Ireland’s national talk radio station >>more
- 6/12/08 Progress Report >>more
- 13/12/08 ColaLife aims and objectives formally reviewed and re-stated based on the learning so far and informed particularly by the trip to Dar Es Salaam. The AidPod moves centre stage.
- 16/12/08 Face to face meeting at Global Tolerance HQ >>more
- 27/12/08 BBC iPM ‘Best of Year’ feature broadcast >>listen
- aidpod domain names registered >>more
- Introduced by Kate Andrews to David Berman the author of Do Good Design >>more
- 8,000th member joins ColaLife Facebook group >>more NOTE: we are now encouraging people to join our Facebook page
- 24/1/09 AidPod ideas explored >>more
- 21/2/09 ColaLife Twitter background released >>more
- 4/3/09 Mark II of the AidPod revealed at face to face meeting at Global Tolerance HQ >>more
- 8/3/09 Supporters encouraged to make their own aidpods - patterns released >>more
- 11/3/09 ColaLife’s Simon Berry is second blogger to be confirmed for the G20 Summit >>more The G20-specific blog posts are here
- 18/3/09 Simon Berry featured in ‘Social Pioneers’ supplement in the Guardian >>more
- 25/3/09 The children of N’gombe Compound, Lusaka celebrate the aidpod >>more
- 28/3/09 Dame Barbara Stocking (Director, Oxfam GB) gives her verdict on the aidpod >>more
- 5/4/09 Bob Geldof talks to Simon Berry about the aidpod >>more
- 8/4/09 theWorkshop in Sheffield build a giant aippod >>more
- 25/4/09 Coca-Cola commit to ColaLife trials in Radio 4 interview >>listen
- 25/4/09 ColaLife, ’story so far’ presentation at ‘Africa Gathering’ >>watch
- 6/5/09 ColaLife’s first birthday
- 17/5/09 ColaLife featured in HARVARD report >>more
- 11/6/09 Giant aidpod installed at NESTA, the UK’s Innovation Centre >>more
- 12/6/09 Prof Don Nutbeam endorses ColaLife in televised panel discussion on global public health >>more
- 17/6/09 Mark III of the aidpod unveiled >>watch >>slideshow
- 24/6/09 ColaLife to play Glastonbury >>more
- 1/7/09 Mayor of London says ‘No’ to ColaLife giant aidpod on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square >>more
- 5/7/09 Russell Tanner dedicates his spot on the 4th Plinth to ColaLife >>more
- 7/7/09 ColaLife headlines in NESTA handbook on social innovation >>more
- 11/7/09 Twitter campaign for plinth appearance starts >>more
- 14/7/09 Sarah Brown (the UK Prime Minister’s wife) tweets for ColaLife! >>more
- 18/7/09 Russell Tanner promotes ColaLife on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square >>watch
- 4/8/09 ColaLife brokers partnership with global NGO for Tanzanian field work >>more
- 5/8/09 ColaLife balloon release >>watch
- 15/8/09 An assessment of where we are with Coca-Cola >>more
- 26/8/09 Progress report >>more
- 19/8/09 ColaLife is incorporated >>more
- 24/9/09 Google back off from Project 10 to the 100th (very disappointing) >>more
- 10/10/09 Giant ColaLife AidPod displayed at the Africa Gathering event >>more
- 14/10/09 WHO/UNICEF Report published: Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done >>more
- 18/10/09 ColaLife makes the GOOD 100 List >>more
- 27/10/09 ColaLife presented at the 8th Annual World Food and Innovation Conference, Rotterdam >>more
- 31/10/09 ColaLife enters the Buckminster Fuller Challenge >>more
- 4/11/09 ColaLife presented at the inaugural TEDx London event >>more
- 12/11/09 Keynote presentation at Chain Reaction 2009 >>more
- 13/11/09 AidPod Mark III animation released >>more
- 14/11/09 ColaLife Channel launched on YouTube - youtube.com/colalife - >>more
- 16/11/09 The ColaLife animation reaches 10,000 views >>more
- 27/11/09 ColaLife gets through to stage 2 of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge (35 of 215 entries have made it this far) >>more
- 7/12/09 Giant AidPod display installed at the RSA, London >>more
- 12/12/09 ColaLife Development Plan published >>more
- 30/12/09 Progress report >>more
Next moves
- Fund raising has begun to raise funds to proptotype, manufacture and test the aidpod and the ColaLife concept
- Increase level of engagement with Coca-Cola with the aim of securing trials of the ColaLife concept in mid 2010
- Simon Berry will give up his day job in June 2010 to work full time on ColaLife
- On-going PR campaign to ensure support groups continue to grow
5,500 children die every day in Africa before the age of 5. This initiative could save thousands and thousands of children’s lives through positive engagement between the private and NGO sector.
Convening Power
December 22, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
I have a great debt of gratitude to those who joined us in the great Open Innovation Exchange (OIE) experiment which I ended up getting a lot of credit for but was really the brain child of David Wilcox et al. The Open Innovation Exchange developed a competitive bid for a UK Government contract in the open, online and the bid was much better as a result.
One thing was clear from the OIE experiment, and that was, that the more people you can convene around an idea the better the idea will become. It’s not that others necessarily come up with better ideas but they will challenge it and force those who put up the idea to improve it or let it die.
This is exactly what’s happened with ColaLife. The idea I put up in May 2008 was that Coca-Cola should remove one bottle in every 10 crates and replace it with a cylinder containing Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS). Now we are talking about a wedge-shaped container (not a cylinder) that makes use of the unused space in a crate AND with local determination of what goes on the container - ORS may not be what’s required in every location, all year round. We’ve gone from a good idea to a brilliant idea (IMHO) because of the way the idea has been exposed, discussed and challenged.
There are other benefits from this process and this became very apparent in the interview I’ve been through today (22/12/09) for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. I was very relaxed going into the interview because I was pretty sure there wasn’t a question that they could come up with that I hadn’t been asked already by a ColaLife supporter in the discussion/challenge process that has gone on over the last 18 months. And that proved to be the case.
There are other benefits of convening of course:
- There’s the one that everyone knows. If you’re a lone voice, you are easy to ignore especially if you’re trying to get the attention of one of the biggest brands on the planet (Cola-Cola in our case). Lot’s people saying the same thing are more difficult to ignore and this has proved to be the case with ColaLife. We’ve managed to get Coca-Cola’s attention. A crucial first step in our case!
- If people convene around an idea it gives you huge confidence that the idea must be a good one. This is really important when you come to try and sell the idea to others (eg potential supporters) who have to be convinced.
As I have said before, this is why I believe in open innovation.
Onwards and upwards.
Thank you Trovus
December 19, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
This is the Christmas eCard that went out all Trovus users this week. Thank you again to the Trovus team for their support for ColaLife.
The links are:
Facebook
ColaLife Website
Twitter
The people behind Trovus are long established supporters of ColaLife and their Trovus Revelations service keeps us informed of who is visiting this website which is pretty handy when you are running a campaign!
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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