Since 2010, Yale has served as the academic partner for Project Last Mile, a public-private partnership that leverages the supply chain acumen and strategic marketing expertise of the Coca-Cola system to strengthen health systems across Africa. For Project Last Mile, a simple question drove a call to action: If you can find a product like Coca-Cola almost anywhere in Africa, why not life-saving medicines? The resulting partnership between the Global Fund, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company and its Foundation aims to improve the availability of life-saving medicines, drive uptake of public health services, and inspire private sector engagement for global good.
Project Last Mile works directly with Ministries of Health and development partners to develop solutions that address local priorities. The partnership has reached 10 countries with context-driven solutions that range from supply chain management; cold chain maintenance to safeguard vaccines; differentiated services to ensure people can access medicines where and when they are needed; and strategic communications to strengthen demand for health services amongst youth.
Our evaluation of Project Last Mile has produced evidence on the impact of the partnership, as well as insight into the challenges and lessons learned. This compendium captures the scholarly outputs developed as part of our evaluation through the end of 2019, including an online teaching case, peer-reviewed manuscripts, and abstracts presented at diverse global scientific conferences.
We would like to thank The Coca-Cola Company and USAID for their financial support of our work; the Project Last Mile Steering Committee, Project Management Office and country teams for their commitment to generate evidence and exchange learnings for global benefit; and stakeholders across Africa for their participation in this research.
View the full compendium as a PDF here.
Teaching Case
Yale University, 2012. An Innovative Public-Private Partnership: Medical Supply Solutions in Tanzania. Available from: http://vol12.cases.som.yale.edu/medical-supply-solutions-tanzania/overview/introduction
Manuscripts
Linnander EL, Yuan CT, Ahmed S, Cherlin E, Talbert-Slagle K, Curry L. Process evaluation of knowledge transfer across industries: Leveraging Coca-Cola’s supply chain expertise for medicine availability in Tanzania. PLoS One, 2017, 12(11): e0186832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186832.
Linnander EL, LaMonaca K, Brault MA, Vyavahare M, Curry LA. A Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Multi- Country, Cross-Sectoral Knowledge Transfer Partnership to Improve Health Systems Across Africa. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 2018; 10(1): 136–148. https://doi.org/10.29034/ijmra.v10n1a9
Brault MA, Christie S, Aquino S, Rendin A, Manchia A, Curry LA, Linnander EL. Project Last Mile and the Development of the Girl Champ brand in eSwatini: Engaging the private sector to promote uptake of health services among adolescent girls and young women. SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS, under review.
Conference Presentations
Yuan C, Wheatley H, Ciccone DK, Linnander E, Bradley EH. (2012) An innovative public-private partnership: Medical supply solutions in Tanzania. NRSA Trainees Research Conference 2012, Orlando, FL, USA.
Ristow A, Linnander EL, Ahmed SA, Curry LC. (2015) Project Last Mile: Applying Coca-Cola’s Expertise to Improve Delivery of Life-Saving Medicines. Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference, 2015. Cape Town, South Africa.
LaMonaca K, Curry LC, Ristow A, Allport T, Scott A, Linnander EL. (2016) The expansion of Project Last Mile: Balancing global scale and local fit to bring private sector expertise to public health agencies. Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference, 2016. Atlanta, GA, USA.
LaMonaca K, Linnander EL, Curry LC. (2017) Successful private sector engagement in global health: Lessons from Project Last Mile. Global Health Supply Chain Summit, 2017. Accra, Ghana.
Roberts P, Allport T, McIntosh C, Ristow A, Scott A, Christie S, Linnander EL. (2018) Project Last Mile (PLM) in South Africa: Leveraging private sector expertise to strengthen de-centralized access to life-saving medicines in the public health sector. The HIV Coverage, Quality, and Impact Network (CQUIN) Annual Meeting, 2018. Maputo, Mozambique.
Christie S, Curry LC, Roberts P, LaMonaca K, Linnander EL. (2018) Project Last Mile in South Africa: Leveraging private sector expertise for differentiated distribution of life-saving medicines. Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference, 2018. Dubai, UAE.
Linnander E, Christie S, Cherlin E, Curry, L. (2019) Trust in Global Health Partnerships: Lessons from Project Last Mile. Poster presented at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference 2019. Chicago, IL, USA.
Christie S, Linnander E, Brault M, Manchia A, Scott A, Mertens, K, Curry L. (2019) Project Last Mile in eSwatini: Leveraging Private Sector Strategic Marketing Expertise to Inform Demand Creation for Health Services – the Girl Champ evolution. Oral presentation given at the Global Health and Innovation Conference, Unite for Sight, April 2019. Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Christie S, Liu L, Desai MM, Pillay M, Roberts P, Linnander EL. (2019) Uptake of a national differentiated service delivery model for patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) and its association with retention on ART in South Africa. Poster presented at 14th International Conference on HIV Treatment and Prevention Adherence, June 2019. Miami, FL, USA.
Halse J, Kirkpatrick T, Christie S, Ayedun AA, Scott A, Linnander EL. (2019). Project Last Mile [PLM] in West Africa: Leveraging private sector expertise to develop effective and sustainable route-to-market (RTM) models to bring life-saving medicines to the last mile. Presentation given at Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference in July 2019. Kigali, Rwanda.
Neves J, Flood J, Meiring S, Shekhar R, Halse J, Christie S. (2019) Applying private sector solutions to optimize routes and build capability for sustainable supply chain management (SCM) in the public health sector – Project Last Mile in Mozambique. Presentation given at Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference in July 2019. Kigali, Rwanda.
Brault MA, Christie S, Aquino S, Rendin A, Manchia A, Scott A, Mabuza K, Curry LA, Linnander EL (2019) Project Last Mile and the Girl Champ brand in eSwatini: A mixed methods evaluation to understand how private sector expertise can promote uptake of HIV prevention services amongst adolescent girls and young women. Presentation given in July 2019 at AIDS Impact Conference 2019. London, UK.
Neves J, Flood J, Cherlin E, Christie S, Linnander EL. (2019) Project Last Mile in Mozambique: Applying private sector solutions and data analytics for sustainable supply chain management (SCM) in the public health sector. Poster presentation given at the Global Health Supply Chain Summit in November 2019. Johannesburg, South Africa.
Roberts P, Pillay M, Christie S, Linnander EL. (2019) Project Last Mile in South Africa: Leveraging private sector innovation and route-to-market insights to improve access to medications in the public sector. Presentation given at the Global Health Supply Chain Summit in November 2019. Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ayedun AA, Christie S, Lensley R, Shekhar R, LaMonaca K, Cherlin E, Linnander EL. (2020) “If it’s not cold, it’s not sold:” Leveraging a private sector service network to improve cold chain uptime and vaccine availability in Lagos, Nigeria. Poster presentation given at Global Health and Innovation Conference (Unite for Sight 2020) in April 2020. New Haven, CT USA.
Christie S, Brault M, Manchia A, Mabuza K, Curry L, Linnander EL. (2020) Project Last Mile and Girl Champ: The Impact of Private Sector Marketing Expertise on Demand for Health Services Amongst Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) in eSwatini. Poster to be presented at the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020 Virtual) in July 2020.
Christie S, Liu L, Roberts P, Pillay M, Linnander EL, Desai M. (2020) Project Last Mile in South Africa supports a national differentiated service delivery (DSD) model for integrated disease management and improved access to antiretrovirals (ARVs). Poster to be presented at the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020 Virtual) in July 2020.