As 2019 begins, we look back at the difference we have made through our partnership that leverages the best capabilities of the Coca-Cola system to make life-saving medicines and health services available to more people in Africa during the past year.
2018 was about going deeper in our existing programs.
• This year we focused on strengthening existing established programs in South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania by working on new phases of programs in these countries.
• Project Last Mile began the third phase of work in South Africa. The work has assisted our partners in revolutionizing patient-friendly access to chronic medication and Anti-Retroviral Treatment through the creation of innovative, alternative pick-up points for more than 2 million people.
• The second phase of work launched in Mozambique, which will support routing optimization in the seven remaining provinces of Nampula, Sofala, Maputo, Maputo City, Niassa, Cabo Delgado, and Manica. Watch a video about our work in Mozambique.
• We deepened our partnership with the Medical Stores Department in Tanzania to optimize delivery routes. Read more here.
In our newer countries, we focused on developing stronger relationships with the Ministry of Health and initiating successful pilots for future work to build on.
• We launched our first strategic marketing campaign, Girl Champ, in eSwatini. GirlChamp is a fresh brand developed by Project Last Mile using one of the TCCC key agency partners, FCB.
• We delivered our first medicines in Liberia as part of the pilot to redesign and improve medicine delivery systems after the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemics.
• In Nigeria, Project Last Mile continued to work with the Lagos State government to finalize contractual agreements for an outsourced maintenance and repair service agreement with FrigoGlass, with the goal of improving cold chain reliability for vaccines. This pilot will begin in the first quarter of 2019.
• Our program in Sierra Leone launched a project to work directly with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the National Medical Supplies Agency to design an effective and cost-efficient Last Mile Delivery model that will help ensure availability of Essential Medicines across all of Sierra Leone’s 1,269 peripheral health units.
We found new ways of sharing what we are doing.
• We launched this website offering a place for partners and the public to engage with our work.
• Our monitoring and evaluation partners Yale Global Health Leadership Intiative (GHLI) published a peer-reviewed publication about Project Last Mile in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches. Download the journal article here.
• We supported The Coca-Cola Company and (RED) to produce a short documentary “The Last Mile” celebrating the progress we’ve made in the fight against HIV/AIDS since the release of the iconic movie “Philadelphia” 25 years ago featured Project Last Mile’s work in Mozambique. Watch the short film here.
• Recently, through their partnership with Global Citizen Festival Mandela 100, Coca-Cola Africa used the Global Citizen website to highlight Project Last Mile’s work. Read more here.