Taking a leaf out of Coca-Cola’s logistics book has provided a helpful blueprint for the distribution of medicines in Africa.
Tapping into multinational companies’ logistics networks is at the heart of the innovative ‘Project Last Mile’ in which the Africa Resource Centre (ARC) – which acts as an independent adviser focusing on the distribution of medication in the region – is actively involved.
This project – which is under way in Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique and Ghana – has helped African governments get vital medicines and supplies the “last mile” to hard-to-reach communities, according to ARC managing director Trip Allport. “When moving medicines, the cold chain is vital. Refrigeration is a major issue.
We turned to CocaCola – which handles 97 000 fridges across Nigeria – who told us that they had seen a direct impact on their bottom line when selling hot cooldrinks,” said Allport. “They keep their cold chain 99% of the time compared to the health departments in many countries that don’t even know what the cold chain reliability is.
We could therefore use the data received to improve the health cold chain.” Another lesson learnt from Coke, said Allport, was that in many instances they moved their products on river barges – especially in countries where roads were unreliable.
“African governments can dramatically improve their ability to meet their health goals by accessing the information of major companies that are already moving products in these countries successfully,” he said. “Investing in health care first and foremost means getting the products to the various locations.”
By applying Coca-Cola ’s supply chain and marketing expertise to help strengthen health systems across Africa they were gradually making inroads, said Allport.
‘Project Last Mile’ simply allows government agencies to learn about Coca-Cola’s business model, and through these learnings they are able to more efficiently deliver critical vaccines, medicines and medical supplies.
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With Coca Cola keeping their cold chain 99% of the time, their data helped to improve the health cold chain. –Trip Allport
