I’ve just got back from the field, with so many stories to tell and pictures to show, to the news that ColaLife’s Kit Yamoyo has won the Product category of the Designs of the Year 2013. The maverick in me thinks it’s fantastic that something designed with the poor and for the poor, and with the word [...]
Riot in Katete
6 April 2013 by 6 Comments
On Wednesday night (3/4/13) night when I sat down, with mosquitos buzzing around my ears, and posted Setting up for an exciting few days in Katete, little did I know what kind of ‘excitement’ that would turn out to be. All the plans were in place to give the ColaLife Cairo to Cape Town cyclists [...]
Setting up for an exciting few days in Katete
3 April 2013 by Leave a Comment
It felt like a weekend this morning as I packed my cycling stuff, put the bike rack and bike on the back of the Land Rover and set off on a six-hour drive across Zambia. But I was in fact going to work. Three hours into the drive I got a call from a number [...]
ColaLife featured in The Mail on Sunday – credit where credit is due
17 March 2013 by Leave a Comment
We are very pleased with this coverage in The Mail on Sunday about our nomination for Designs of the Year 2013 but I’d like to expand on it a bit. As the ‘front man’ for ColaLife I tend to get all the recognition which is not entirely fair! The idea of piggy-backing essential medicines on [...]
Trailer for ColaLife Documentary released
9 March 2013 by Leave a Comment
Here it is, the 60 sec trailer for The Cola Road, the 40 minute documentary on ColaLife. The filmaker, Claire Ward, describes the film as follows: For years, it has baffled visitors to developing countries: Coca-Cola is everywhere, but basic medicines are not. This year, Zambia has become the first African country to embrace ColaLife, an [...]
It’s the value chain stupid!
3 March 2013 by 2 Comments
Private sector people with supply chain experience will chuckle when they read this. It will be so obvious to them. But it’s not obvious to the rest of us. This is just one example of how public private partnerships are so helpful. What’s obvious to someone from the private sector may not be obvious to [...]
Whistle stop trip to the UK
17 February 2013 by 1 Comment
I got back to Lusaka yesterday after a packed speaking and meeting tour in the UK, taking in London and Norwich. It’s great to be back in my blogging seat at my blogging desk. I gave three presentations while in the UK (9/2/13 University of East Anglia (UEA); 11/2/13 Health and Private Sector Advisers at [...]
The Design Council gets behind ColaLife
8 February 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Please show the judges we care and 'Like' our nomination on the Dessign Museum's facebook Page here. Two clicks and you're done!] Fans of our Facebook page will know that the ColaLife AidPod has been nominated by The Design Museum as one of the Designs of the Year 2013 which we are very proud of. [...]
Retailers buy by the box full
3 February 2013 by 2 Comments
When we were designing the ColaLife Trial in Zambia (COTZ), we agonised over the unit of sale to retailers. We had some information on the working capital that remote, rural retailers had. But not much. We finally settled on a pack size of one bag of 5 kits as the unit of sale to a [...]
ColaLife Supporters’ Networking Event – and a call to help us win $1,000!
19 December 2012 by 6 Comments
What a great crowd of supporters came together last night at The Design Museum – to enjoy some good conversation, a grandstand view of Tower Bridge, SABMiller‘s famous beers and mince pies (courtesy of our Trustees). Grateful thanks are due to Civic Agenda who sponsored the venue. We nearly missed it. Delayed on the tarmac for 5 hours [...]
