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ColaLife enters the mainstream popular and academic media

15 September 2011 By 1 Comment

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The Lancet Logo BW
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As we build up to our move to Zambia to oversee an independently evaluated trial of the ColaLife concept, interest in what we are trying to achieve has reached new levels.

In the last few weeks we have had three mentions in HELLO! Magazine (@hellomag) with a full-page spread in the 22 August 2011 issue. This has been thanks to Honda’s Dream Factory initiative which I am very pleased to be a part of – I’m one of the nominated ‘Cultural Engineers’ - we are all dreamers who are trying to make their dreams come true! There are some interesting people in this group and we are all getting together for the first time in November in the Guardian Offices in London . . . . more on this later.

Popular media is all very well and it really boosts our supporter numbers which has been important and has given us the power we need to engage the powerful organisations required to make ColaLife work.

But when it comes to funding, credibility is important and it helps if you feature in UN Publications and academic publications like The Lancet. We were in both this week which is more than we could have hoped for.

On Monday (12/9/11) a thematic report – Innovating for Every Woman, Every Child – was published by the UN’s Every Woman, Every Child initiative (EWEC) looking at innovation in the areas of child and maternal health. The report is being published, as a peer reviewed report, and distributed through The Lancet. You will need to register and download the PDF version. This is all very inaccessible, however, thanks go to Talea Miller of PBS Newshour for writing about the report and choosing to highlight ColaLife in this blog post on the PBS Newshour site.

This blog post has generated quite a lot of excitement on Twitter with an original tweet by The Gates Foundation being re-tweeted many times.

Gates Foundation EWEC tweet

What I’m really looking forward to though is the publication of the results of the ColaLife trial in The Lancet in a couple of years time!

 

 

 

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Leave it to the experts

28 March 2010 By 1 Comment

ColaLife Ad Warwick 0310 v2 ColaLife Ad Warwick 0310 v3

Following the ColaLife TEDx Warwick presentation on 6/3/10, I was contacted by Richard Potter, a member of the executive for the International Development Summit at Warwick (WIDS) which takes place every November. Richard said:

We’ve subsequently written a post-summit magazine – which is just about to go to print – which will be circulated to all our prestigious speakers and guests, past and future, including the IMF, UN etc. I’d be absolutely thrilled to advertise your campaign inside, (for free, of course). Would you be interested in this?

Of course I said ‘yes’. I went about trying to typeset something (see left hand image above). Richard came back with the superb design on the right. Thanks Richard! Richard got the image from this set I took when on my visit to Tanzania at the invitation of Coca-Cola.

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Is Business the answer?

5 October 2008 By Leave a Comment

Adrian Ristow writes:

Having spent some time in New York recently at the UN’s End Poverty event, and being a bit of a philosopher, I am going to take the liberty of sharing a few general personal thoughts… I know that some people get a bit skeptical that weeks such as these involve a lot of talk (and yes there was a lot of talk!) and not enough action. But I must say that I am encouraged by the passion and energy that I see in a growing number of people. It has to start somewhere and I feel that more and more ordinary people are also now becoming aware of the world’s key issues and want to do something about them. Social media such as Simon’s blog (this ColaLife blog) are no doubt playing a role in this education process and I think that there is an emerging generation of business people who take a much stronger interest in development problems. Okay, okay, off my soapbox and back to the MDC project.

During October we have been tying up some loose ends on the research report with the IFC and Kennedy School of Government. This research is really helping us to frame our next steps in the project. In parallel to this I am happy to say that since The Coca-Cola Company’s initial submission to the Business Call to Action early in 2008, we have calculated that over 500 new Manual Distribution Centres (MDCs) have been opened in East and West Africa, meaning new direct employment for around 2,500 people as well. So, while we focus on improving the development impact of the model through our Tanzanian project, the general momentum continues as more people are set up in their own small businesses on the continent, which is really positive.

Adrian

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Adrian reports from the UN

30 September 2008 By Leave a Comment

Adrian Ristow writes:

My first time at UN week (22-26 September, 2008) in New York.

Wow, what an experience! I knew that there was something special on the go when I couldn’t get near the entrance to my hotel because the secret service had blocked off a number of roads in Manhattan.

In between the anxiety caused by the financial crisis in the US and the Presidential debate I am pleased to say that there was quite a lot of discussion about the Millennium Development Goals and a lot of focus on Africa as well at many different events.

Besides the main UN events, there were a number of development focused events taking place, the most notable that I had some involvement with being the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

A real highlight of the week for me was being able to attend the awards ceremony of the CGI which recognizes individual commitment to the world’s major problems. It was a treat to be able to sit right next to the stage and hear James Taylor singing an awesome version of ‘Friend’ – hopefully a prophetic statement from those gathered in New York towards Africa.

Adrian

Adrian Ristow, has been reporting here, on the ColaLife blog, on the research being carried out by Coca-Cola into their distribution network in Tanzania and Ethiopia.

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How can we make the most of the Business Call To Action?

10 August 2008 By 1 Comment

Business Call To Action LogoIt was the last Business Call To Action event in London hosted by Gordon Brown on 6 May 2008 that re-ignited this idea and started the ColaLife Campaign. I wrote about this at the time. The 6 May event was part of the build-up to the main UN-level event in New York on 25 September 2008. There is a useful summary of this UN initiative on the DfID website.

I understand that the Coca-Cola Chairman will be making some sort of statement at the event and that the research we’ve been reporting into Coca-Cola’s distribution network is likely to feature in that statement. However, I am pretty sure that there are no plans to mention ColaLife at this stage.

So, what should we be trying to achieve and how should we go about it? Should we try and ensure that reference is made to our campaign?

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