Across Africa, governments and donors have made progress in getting medicines into African countries. However, the medicine does not always reach the health facilities where people collect it, and nearly 50% of people lack access to these critical medicines. In contrast, a Coca-Cola product is available almost everywhere on the continent.
By leveraging the expertise and network of the Coca-Cola System, Project Last Mile is a pioneering public-private partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Global Fund, and USAID to help improve uptake of life-saving health services and to enable medicines to go to the “last mile” and benefit communities in Africa. Project Last Mile collaborates with regional Coca-Cola bottlers and suppliers to strengthen public health systems capacity in supply chain by sharing the expertise and network of the Coca-Cola System with the local Ministry of Health (MoH). To date, Project Last Mile has supported work in 8 countries in Africa, including Tanzania, Ghana, Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, Swaziland, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Coca-Cola Lead Cooler Technician, Maxwell Ayisi (left), and Ghana Health Service Refrigeration Technician, Livingstone Modey, repairing a dual gas/ electric vaccine refrigerator at a clinic in Peki Dzake in the Volta Region of Ghana on 18 June 2014.
