Help to raise the profile of ColaLife on our Birthday
May 18, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Would you like to do something really significant on the birthday of ColaLife’s Facebook Group? If yes, then please comment on these two independent articles: click on the links below and add a comment, mentioning ColaLife, to the article you see. This will really help raise our profile. Thanks.
Business Week
Coke: On Doing Well by Doing Go
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Onwards and upwards!
ColaLife gets mention in HARVARD report
May 17, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Last week the HARVARD Kennedy School and the IFC published their report into the research into Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution System undertaken in East Africa in the summer of 2008. We reported on this here. The report can be downloaded here: harvard-ifc-mdc-summary-report-final (PDF, 2.3 MB).
The good news is that ColaLife is mentioned:
In November 2008, once the study’s initial findings were available, Coca-Cola convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue in Tanzania to seek input on the fi ndings. The session was attended by development practitioners from the NGO, government and international agency community to debate and explore some of the research recommendations in more detail. Co-facilitated by Business Action for Africa and the International Business Leaders Forum, the dialogue included a wide range of participants including local, regional and international representatives from organizations such as Save the Children, Population Services International, Enablis, CARE International, Colalife, the U.K.’s Department for International Development, the United States Agency for International Development, SNV Netherlands Development Corporation and UNICEF.
And so does the distribution of social products:
In these two countries and others where the MDC model is being implemented, there is potential to leverage this network of thousands of small enterprises that are located in low-income communities to achieve broader development goals, such as the distribution of social products or support for social marketing. This broader effort cannot and should not be the responsibility of the company alone. Nor must it undermine the core commercial viability of these small enterprises. Failure to maintain profi tability would clearly undermine the business model and thereby jeopardize the long-term contribution it can make to development. Yet, by working in partnership with other companies, donors, government bodies or development experts there is potential for the network of MDCs to be leveraged in a targeted way to address other development needs.
This is a huge achievement given that this was the starting point . . . . when there was no mention of social products at all:
Find more videos like this on Business Fights Poverty
Simply brilliant!
Welcome to the ColaLife office
May 14, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I am a total sucker for new technology and gadgets and I was starting to look like a bit of a nurd until this campaign started and has demonstrated just what you can do with this stuff.
Anyway, I met up last night with my friend David Wilcox who’s been a bit of a mentor of mine in this area and always has the next gadget that I wish I could have. We met upstairs in the Marquis of Granby on Dean Bradley Street. This is just opposite where I work and as become the ColaLife office. I have met so many amazing people in there since the campaign has started. Many schemes have been hatched in the Marquis of Granby.
Anyway David had his iPhone (which I wish I had) with him with the AudioBoo application (which I was I had) on it and he recorded this:
And took this picture:
And AudioBoo sorted out the mapping (so now you know where the ColaLife office is):
A conversation with Mark Ellis of sounddelivery
May 13, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
A big thank you to the folks at sounddelivery, Mark Ellis and Eric Whelan in particular, for the creativity that went into this audio feature which was recorded on the evening of 25/3/09 and summarised the ColaLife story so far. The feature mixes audio from various sources.
Since the interview Coca-Cola have confirmed that they plan to carry out trials of the ColaLife idea later this year in Tanzania.
Further evidence of need - the Guardian’s Katine Project
May 3, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Image credit: Katine Project, Guardian Newspapers
Following the ColaLife presentation at last week’s Africa Gathering, we have been asked to provide an article to feature on the website that supports the Katine Project. This meant that Jane, who volunteered to write the article, had to do a bit of research into Katine.
Anyway, here are some selected quotes from the first evaluation of the project. Note that lack of availability of simple drugs is a key issue:
The huge issue of access to drug supplies was consistently identified as the main barrier to the successful implementation of health programmes in Katine. Lack of anti-malarials and other basic medication meant Amref health staff could not distribute drug storage kits to VHTs. Health centre staff labelled lack of drugs stocks a “chronic problem” and said that a lack of transport, doctors, equipment and power was also causing serious challenges.
At Ojom health centre, Richard Okello, the district nurse, outlines the most common health problems he has to deal with in Katine.
The biggest problem we face on a day to day level is malaria,” says Okello, who describes the disease as “rampant” in Katine. “The problem is that because of the problems with drugs supply, we usually don’t have enough or any malaria medicine to give people.
Currently the Ojom clinic doesn’t have any first-line malaria drugs left in stock.
“The problem is a lot of our patents are very poor so they can’t afford to go straight on to second-line treatment,” he says. “As a nurse you sympathise and feel really bad for them and just pray that the patient will be helped by a drug delivery but it doesn’t always happen.”
“The problem is that people are so worried about health they expect we can come in and provide solutions to everything and we simply don’t have the resources to do that,” he says. “There is such a huge need for improved health services, for a better drug supply chain, for more and better equipped clinics, but there is a limit to what we can realistically achieve.”
Preventable diseases cause 75% of premature deaths.. diarrhoea amongst most common problems.. one in five children in Katine are moderately or severely underweight.
ColaLife - the story so far - 25/4/09
April 26, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Here’s the presentation I gave yesterday at the Africa Gathering event at Birkbeck College, London. The audio was added retrospectively. The ‘Live’ version was a lot more fun! But all the facts are here. The videos and audio mentioned in the presentation are here:
- Frontline video
- What Bob Geldof thinks of the ColaLife idea
- What Dame Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam, thinks of the ColaLife idea
- Initial iPM feature
- ‘Best of year’ iPM feature
Big thanks are due to Ed Scotcher and friends for organising a great day and for inviting ColaLife.
*STOP PRESS*
An hour or so after this presentation, Coca-Cola confirmed their commitment to trials on the BBC’s iPM programme on Radio 4. You can listen again here.
PROGRESS REPORTS
The latest timeline (progress report) is always here.
ADDENDUM: 30/6/09
Here is a video of the African Gathering presentation. After a bit of a flaky start with the technology it’s OK! Thanks to Mark Simpkins for uploading this.
Simon Berry at Africa Gathering, London 2009 from Mark Simpkins on Vimeo.
Why we still need Google’s support
April 23, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
Animation produced by Facebook members to support our Project 10^100 entry
There is a danger, now that Coca-Cola have said yes (probably) to trials of our idea in Tanzania, the people at Google will think ‘job done’ and decide we don’t need their help. However, the truth is that we need their help now more than ever. Up until the Coca-Cola statement on Tuesday (21/4/09) all we had was an idea, a pretty amazing idea, but just an idea. Now we have a job to do. It’s not a case of ‘job done’, more the case of a huge ‘job to do’.
Although we are right to expect Coca-Cola to invest in the ColaLife idea, we shouldn’t expect them to ‘own’ it - and indeed they have no aspiration to. Coca-Cola will be one of a number of crucial partners that will be required to make ColaLife a successful, replicable reality. If ColaLife aidpods are going to be part of the trials this year we are going to need several thousand of them. We are going to need talented designers to build and test prototypes. Then we’ll need them made - preferably in Africa. Everything so far has been voluntary - but to do this properly we’re going to need funding. While the trials are underway in Tanzania we’ll need to be learning and understanding the key success factors. We’ll need to be working with local people in other developing countries to understand local conditions and the enablers and barriers to replication of the idea. And so the list goes on.
So, Google, if you’re listening. We need you now more than ever.
The text of our Project 10^100 entry are here.
Please register to vote for ColaLife here.
If you work for Google . . . when are you going to announce the top 100 ideas? (well, if you don’t ask?).
Coca-Cola poised to make a statement - but will they mention ColaLife?
April 5, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
First of all - if you’d like to hear this statement live and get a chance to ask questions then join Business Fights Poverty and register for this event. It’s free.
This video shows where Coca-Cola were in May 2008 when the ColaLife campaign was started. It was made by Neville Isdell the then Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola. Interestingly, Neville started his career with Coca-Cola in Zambia which is where the ColaLife idea was born more than 20 years ago.
I think they have come a long way since this statement but let’s see what they say at the Business Fights Poverty event on 21 April 2008. Yes, this statement already recognises the importance of nurturing local entrepreneurship to create local jobs and wealth. Yes, it recognises that the model of local ‘Manual Distribution Centres’ also gives a test-bed for training initiatives. But can Coca-Cola be among the first corporations to make to leap to integrate the distribution of ’social products’ within commercial distribution networks? Arguably, this could make a huge impact on health issues in a short timescale. Coca-Cola will have to shift quite a way to take on this additional paradigm shift, but I think they can do it!
Find more videos like this on Business Fights Poverty
What do you think of this statement? To many people it will sound like ‘business as usual’: of course Coca-Cola want to expand their distribution network - why wouldn’t they? On the other hand, if they do something radical, like embrace the ColaLife idea, test it and roll it out worldwide, then that would be different.
An AidPod Made in Zambia!
March 25, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Image credit: Alison Pearson
This is the first AidPod to be made in Africa (to my knowledge). And it was made in Zambia which is where the ColaLife idea was born way back in 1988. My friend Alison has been volunteering in Zambia for a couple of decades (or more) and currently helps out in the N’gombe Compound in Lusaka. Alison took this photo and here is the story behind it in Alison’s words:
Dear Simon,
Eh, they got a bit excited - there WAS a crate in there somewhere but it was
swamped in the melee!! However the boy is holding a coke and they are
shrieking with laughter so I thought it was a good one.
I got a teacher to explain what you were doing and why we wanted a photo
and they understood very well and were very eager to take part. Not many
of them would have reached their age without facing the death of a sibling
in their own homes so it’s close to their hearts for sure. They are from
N’gombe Compound in Lusaka. I volunteer there mainly raising cash for books
and desks, do a bit of teacher training and workshops etc and I run a feeding
programme for 60 kids two meals per day. I mainly pester friends and
relations and the Wild Geese etc but this year I was very fortunate to get
a little funding from the Catholic Secretariat which took the pressure off a bit.
If you want another pikkie with a crate I can try again.
All the best with the campaign.
Love, Ali
Thanks Ali! You’ve made my day!
How could Coca-Cola possibly say ‘No’?
Thumbnail on ColaLife in today’s Guardian 18/3/09
March 18, 2009 by Simon Berry · 4 Comments
The following mention of ColaLife appeared in a ‘Social pioneers’ supplement in today’s Guardian. It’s worth getting the supplement if you are interested in this sort of thing. People have been looking for this online and I don’t think it’s there. So here’s a photo of the ColaLife bit:
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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