Children
Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
Children

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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Early Childhood Endowment Fund - Fondo PI

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This fund is an initiative to promote investment in early childhood in Colombia. The longterm investment plan allows private investors and donors to generate investment opportunities in early childhood development (ECD) within the framework of public policy and capitalises on the experience and lessons learned by civil society.

Communication Strategies
  • Care for pregnant women: programmes to improve medical attention for women, with participation by the community and in coordination with the health care system, including education for mothers and their families in order to ensure self-care during pregnancy, one of the determinant phases in the development of the future girl or boy. The objective is to integrate development and early stimulation programmes with education for parents in prenatal care, early health care, nutrition, and early care.
  • Strengthening preschool education and the quality of transitions: this initiative seeks to guarantee access to quality early education for at least the first two years of life (before entering basic primary school) as a key element for the development of children. The PI Fund supports programmes that investigate and provide teacher training for teachers and caregivers, programmes to create tools to ensure timely cognitive and affective stimulation, and improvements in the physical infrastructure and tools at preschool centres, with an emphasis on providing the appropriate paedagogical materials.
  • Prevention, detection, and management of situations of exclusion: early detection and management of situations that can become factors for exclusion (for example, sexual abuse, abuse, and mild disabilities). The PI Fund supports programmes for training/educating teachers and parents on prevention, detection, and management of these situations, with the objective of reducing the social costs.
Development Issues

Early childhood, education, rights.

Key Points

PI Fund resources come from contributions from the Environmental and Childhood Action Fund, foundations, and private companies. Resources are administered by UBS Financial Services, a global investment portfolio manager. The annual returns generated by the fund are deposited in an expiring fund and are used to leverage the contributions of private companies, foundations, and other donors. This total is then invested in programmes and projects directed towards young children. Business people can invest either as donors or as strategic programme associates.

Partners

The initiative was created in 2007 by the Fondo para la Acción Ambiental y la Niñez (Environmental and Childhood Action Fund) with the backing of the Instituto Colombiano de Bien Estar Familiar (The Colombian Family Well Being Institute), the National Planning Department, the National Ministry of Education, private foundations, and development agencies.

Sources

Environmental and Childhood Action Fund website, February 12 2013.