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 addressing infrastructure, information sharing, and capacity building.

Coca-Cola Enterprises Joins Carbon Footprint-Cutting Race (via Triple Pundit) – Coca-Cola, one of my favorite companies, has pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 15% by 2020.

What Western Executives Should Learn About Design Thinking in Emerging Markets – This is an article from back in March by John Hagel and John Seely Brown, both from the Center for Edge Innovation at Deloitte. They look at the case of Tata Motors, which released a car called the Nano which was a “disruptive innovation” in the developing world car market. It’s a great piece, and at the end they list four key points (or “broader lessons”) to be learnt.

Maker Faire Africa in 2 Weeks (via WhiteAfrican) – Erik Hersman posted a preview of what to expect at the upcoming Maker Faire Africa – “a celebration of African ingenuity, innovation and invention” – in Accra. Check it out!

Kiva.org: July: 2nd biggest month of lending ever! – Despite (or maybe IN spite of) the global economic recession, Kiva announced today that July posted the second highest lending numbers EVER through their site! The highest month EVER you ask? JUNE! This comes off the back of five (5) very strong months of lending ranging from $3.8 Million in February 2009 to June’s record $4.9 Million. This is awesome, congrats KIVA!

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 crates of Coca-Cola being distributed throughout Africa. ColaLife recently secured an arrangement with Coca-Cola to run a pilot-program (likely in Tanzania) in the coming months.

From the ColaLife Blog:

Coca-Cola’s response to the Business Call To Action has always been tightly [sic] focused [sic] on growing Coca-Cola’s core business in Africa but doing this is a way that maximizes [sic] impact in terms of the alleviation of poverty (see a fuller explanation here). However, last night, Euan made a specific reference to ColaLife and stated that they wanted to go beyond their original intention and look at the opportunities for social marketing and the distribution of  ’social products’. This is a big step for Coca-Cola and the campaign and in the right direction.

I’ve already mentioned the power of Coca-Cola’s distribution networks in terms of developing a complementary industry to their primary operations. It’s very interesting to think about how, now, social entrepreneurs can build off of these preexisting distribution networks to get much needed supplies and aid to communities previously not easily accessible.

For more information on ColaLife:

• Visit their website: http://www.colalife.org
• Join their Facebook Group

And here is a quick YouTube video: