Summary

ColaLife is a non-profit working with Coca-Cola to open their distribution channels in developing countries in order to supply their Kit Yamoyo which contains crucial ‘social products’ – such as oral rehydration salts, high-dose vitamin A, water purification tablets – to save children’s lives.

Program goals

Mothers can walk up to 30 km to their "local" Health Post, only to find essential medicines (EMs) out-of-stock. In order to increase accessibility, the WHO recommended the implementation of 'kits' in rural communities. Yet, distributors cannot afford to do this as transport alone is responsible for 40% of the price for these lifesaving packages.

Coca-Cola however, is accessible almost everywhere; in the same rural areas that are able to drink Coca-Cola, 1 in 5 children die every year from simple preventable illnesses such as dehydration from diarrhoea. Therefore, ColaLife works to use Coca Cola's supply chain to help ensure access to EMs.

Key program components

ColaLife has formed partnership with Coca-Cola, designing an EMs container named 'AidPod' that is able to fit in the unused space of drink crates in order to reach these remote areas. AidPods are a purposefully adaptable design so a range of countries can adopt the model. The AidPod, plus the contents, forms the 'Kit Yamoyo'.

Kit Yamoyos are introduced into crates directly at the Wholesaler and subsidies, determined by the community's willingness/ability to pay, are injected a the distributor level. The first operational trial started Autumn 2012 in Zambia where the value chain for a locally-determined ‘Anti-Diarrhoea Kit' (ADK) was tested. The scheme uses vouchers, to ensure affordability, and mobile phones for tracking and authentication.

Because the Kit Yamoyo is a commodity, just like Coca-Cola, wholesalers and retailers purchase it themselves. This means that extra care is taken to protect the product from damages and theft as a loss directly impacts the individual.

The design of ‘Kit Yamoyo’ is unique; five large or ten small kits fit in each crate. Each AidPod features:

• A container for the anti-diarrhoea kit ('AidPod') which includes: eight 4g sachets of oral rehyrdation salts (ORS); one course of 10 Zinc tablets; a 20g bar of soap; an information and branding leaflet (note that the kit can also act as a cup for drinking the ORS)
• A measure for the water you need to make up the ORS solution (200ml) which is useful in places where people do not have, or understand measures
• A storage device for made-up ORS solution

What's more, AidPods can be waterproof, trackable and tamper-evident. ColaLife is exploring a variety of packaging options from re-usable to bio-degradable materials. The scheme is intended to be expanded to cross-subsidised parallel products sold in wealthier markets in order to reach the emerging African middle classes.

As of 2011, 30,000 mothers/carers and 40,000 children under 5, in 60 rural communities across 2 districts were benefiting from ColaLife.