Here’s your Daily Brief for August 3rd: US Africa Trade on Exhibition at 8th Annual AGOA Forum (via Africa Business Source) – A nice overview of this weeks AGOA forum. Makes the good point that the issue needing MOST focus is no longer market access, but rather building up the competitiveness of African Countries by [...]

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time now, however the launch of Transparency Solutions has been quite time consuming. So with no further ado, per the request of a reader: A look at B-Corporations! I was first introduced to B-Corporation (B standing for benefit, and B-Corp for short) a few months ago [...]

This video is taken from the BBC series “The Other America”, which focuses on poverty in Latin America. The short documentary explores three companies (Dole Fruit, CEMEX, and Perhusa Coffee) and their programs designed to integrate the poor into their corporate value chains. From the BBC site: “It is not about philanthropy or giving away [...]

There’s a new organization that has really caught my attention lately: ColaLife. Simon Barry is the mind behind the project designed to leverage the preexisting distribution networks of Coca-Cola (previously mentioned here) to deliver what he’s calling “aidpods” – essentially packages filled with medicines ranging from anti-malarial to anti-diarrhetic medicines that seamlessly fit into the [...]

Sitting in the university classrooms of Washington, DC, I was exposed to a great deal of disdain for “Corporate America” and the role it plays in the third world. One of the companies that came up repetitively was Coca-Cola. But so many people fail to see the integral role multinational companies play in creating jobs – giving a hand up rather than a hand out – and the social contribution that these companies make.

While in Kenya, Coke was everywhere. Lining the streets were red Coca-Cola “duka” stands where vendors sell among many other things, Coca-Cola products. Asking around about the role Coca-Cola plays in Kenya, I got nothing but positive feedback. I learned that street vendors that sell Coca-Cola products are given the red “dukas” that come along with a small fan to keep the “duka” cool, as well as a refrigerating unit to store the Coke products being sold. The video below gives perspective on how Coca-Cola has adapted to local systems of operation and has create millions of jobs around the world. Here is a quick overview of Coke’s poverty alleviation efforts (link there):
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