Before the excitement of Product Design of the Year award took over our lives, it was lovely to play host to two amazing people – Ali and Lizzie – as they cycled through Zambia on their way from Cairo to Cape Town. Their target is to raise £10,000 for three charities which mean a lot [...]
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 [...]
ColaLife – the documentary – can you help make it happen?
27 June 2012 by 5 Comments
In three weeks time a young documentary maker – a post graduate of New York University – will be travelling to Zambia to make her first solo documentary. Claire Ward will follow the first ’Kit Yamoyo’ on a test run from Lusaka, through the Coca-Cola wholesaler in Kalomo town, and out to retailers serving mothers [...]
Testing, testing, 123 testing
28 May 2012 by Leave a Comment
The testing processes that PI Global have put into place for the AidPod have been extensive and thorough. 1 Selection of the sealing film Firstly, four different sealing films were heat-sealed to the AidPod and then subjected to under-water pressure tests. The pressure was reduced to -300mB and held for 1 minute to stress the [...]
The ColaLife Office, 11 Katemo Road, Lusaka
16 January 2012 by 3 Comments
This is just a quick note to register the fact that we’ve hit another milestone and have moved into our new office at 11 Katemo Road, Lusaka. We are being hosted by TMSA, a programme of COMESA our accountable body. It feels slightly strange. This is the first office I’ve worked in since leaving Defra [...]
Chongwe, Luangwa, Nyimba, Petauke and Katete
13 January 2012 by 3 Comments
Note to self . . . never leave Lusaka with anything less than a full tank of fuel. I’m always up for a bit of excitement, but our trip to Eastern Province this week proved a little more exciting than is comfortable – on various fronts. If you’d like to share some of the sights, [...]
Moving towards District selection
9 January 2012 by Leave a Comment
Crunch time is approaching in terms of which Districts we select for the ColaLife trial. The ‘tension’ between the desire to go for what academics call a ‘randomised cluster trial’ – the gold standard in trial design - and the practicality you encounter on the ground; the way free markets work and the impact of the personality [...]
I went on a bike ride
11 December 2011 by 1 Comment
Expatriate life here can have very little exercise in it unless you work at it. If you’re not careful you move from office chair to car seat to another chair. So I’ve decided to get a bicycle. It’s not really practical to use it for work. Respect levels would fall through the floor if you [...]
Productive day despite transport trauma
7 November 2011 by 2 Comments
Today was always going to be a busy day, scheduled to start with a meeting with SABMiller at 10am. In preparation for this I was up early and dived into the car with my flip flops on to drive across to the other side of Lusaka to pick up Rohit before the traffic jams started. [...]
Rohit, ICT4RD and UNICEF
3 November 2011 by 4 Comments
Rohit Ramchandani at UNICEF HQ, Lusaka I last blogged just before we left the airport to meet Rohit for the first time and you will all be anxious to know if he arrived safely. Well he did. Here he is in full flow this afternoon (3/11/11) at the UNICEF headquarters in Lusaka. This was our [...]
