Matching Health Enterprises with Private Sector Expertise
To Improve Family Planning

Overview

Project Last Mile (PLM) is a cross-sector partnership between The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) and its Foundation, The Global Fund, PEPFAR, USAID, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, designed to support Ministries of Health and partners in applying The Coca-Cola ecosystem’s logistics, supply chain, and marketing expertise to strengthen public health systems across Africa.

With the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), PLM is seeking to identify and support innovators and social enterprises who demonstrate a proven or promising market-based approach to improve the availability, access to, or uptake of family planning commodities or relevant products in Africa through PLM technical assistance in the area route-to-market. Successful applicants will be poised for growth and serving customers in eligible countries in Africa.

What do we mean by Route-to-market?

Route-to-Market (RTM) is a strategic and operational approach used by companies, like The Coca-Cola Company, to develop and execute a plan to move products effectively and efficiently from a production or storage facility to the end-users, customers, or distributors.

Examples of Route-to-Market support can include:

•  Outlet Creation and New Customer Prospecting Strategy.
• Picture of Success Development and Excellence in Execution.
• Customer Service Strategy.
• Order Generation and Inventory Management.
• Last Mile Network and Route Optimization.
• Inventory Deployment Planning
• Forecasting and Demand Planning.
• Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management.

What types of questions can PLM help you answer?

•  We want to expand our product delivery options to include direct-to-consumer delivery. Is this feasible for us? What would be required to establish and operate this new delivery channel?
• By 2023, we want to expand our customers from 1,000 pharmacies to 2,000 pharmacies, including expansion into a new region. What is the most efficient, effective approach to expand distribution and effectively service new and current clients?
• We have a growing network of 200 sales agents, how might we improve performance management, compensation modeling, and customer service protocol to improve employee engagement and increase sales?
•  We have a wide portfolio of products available to our customers with inconsistent availability at the point of purchase. How do we prioritize the product portfolio to meet the customer needs, and what additional execution elements need to be performed at the customer to make consumers aware of the products and services available to them?

Who can Apply? Eligible Organizations will:

• Be registered and operating as a legal for-profit or not-for-profit social enterprise.
• Be operating and/or serving communities in one or more of the eligible countries.
• Demonstrate a proven or promising market-based approach to improve family planning product availability in one or more of the eligible countries. Note: While family planning products must be part of the product portfolio, the approach may also support the availability of other products.
• Demonstrate keen interest and commitment to strengthen, design, and test the solutions co-designed during or soon after the project period.
• Demonstrate a sustainable business or funding model to support sustained and expanded operations.

Note: This program will not be offering technical support related to accreditation or manufacturing of new products.

How can you apply?

Please read the full Request for Application for important additional information before you apply. All applications must be submitted via the online application form at VC4A. For any questions or additional information, please contact ahmed.mostafa@getf.org.

Family Planning – Technical Assistance RFA (PDF here)