Child rights action with informed and engaged societies

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Uganda Program for Human and Holistic Development (UPHOLD)

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The Uganda Program for Human and Holistic Development (UPHOLD) was a six-year programme (October 2002 to September 2008) implemented by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and supported by the Government of Uganda. UPHOLD strengthened capacity in 34 districts for the improved delivery, planning, management, monitoring, and effective use of social services in 3 integrated social sectors: health, education, and HIV/AIDS. UPHOLD was committed to empowering families, communities, and institutions to improve the quality and use of services through value-added partnerships and using people-centred approaches for a sustained client-friendly environment.
Communication Strategies

UPHOLD's characteristic approaches included:

  • Strengthening human capacity and creating synergy between the sectors - for example, in the area of primary education, UPHOLD worked to build capacity in planning, management, and supervision at decentralised levels and to foster parental involvement.
  • Strengthening partnerships and dialogue between the public sector, the private sector, civil society, families, and communities - for example, to enable increased access to and quality of education, UPHOLD facilitated dialogue and consensus-building between families, communities, teachers, and other stakeholders.
  • Building on the existing strengths and opportunities of Uganda's human and socio-cultural resources, such as by working to stimulate use of "innovative" tools and approaches to improve children's learning in school and at home.
  • Cultivating a behaviour-centred orientation that focuses on understanding and strategically addressing human motivations and constraints in taking specific actions - UPHOLD sought, for instance, to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS by encouraging behaviour change around sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Using these strategies, UPHOLD hoped to improve antenatal and postnatal care, as well as safe and clean deliveries and obstetric care, by fostering dialogue and decision-making in families and communities.
  • Improving quality assurance systems - UPHOLD hoped to bolster services for HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing, as well as to increase access to and utilisation of quality family planning services and efficient synergies to the end of controlling HIV/AIDS, STIs, and malaria.
  • Deepening systems thinking using creative processes for strategic analysis and planning - UPHOLD worked to support people living with HIV/AIDS and to develop approaches to empower and involve young people and address gender and culture.

For details on specific UPHOLD strategies and projects, click here.

Development Issues

Education, Health, HIV/AIDS, Youth, Family Planning, Children.

Partners

Implementing Partners include: Education Development Center, Constella Futures, The Malaria Consortium, The Manoff Group, Inc., and World Education.

Other JSI Partners for this project: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, Ministry of Local Government, Uganda AIDS Commission.

Sub-grantees: AIDS Information Center and The AIDS Support Organisation.

Sources

UPHOLD website; and email from Penelope A. Riseborough to The Communication Initiative on November 20 2009.

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