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

Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Read so far

Consultation: Advancing Communication and Media Development and SBCC

1 comment

Many best wishes. The Communication Initiative and UNICEF New York (Rafael Obregon, Chief of Communication for Development leading) are workng to assess the potential added value of a new global mechanism to advance further the communication and media development, social and behaviour change field of work. There is a brief orientation to this initiative at this link. We are working to ensure that there is input into this possible development from a wide ranging set of people and organisations engaged in communication and media development, social and behavioural change. if you are interested to engage we would love to have your input. 

We are very interested to learn from you about the most pressing communication and media for development priorities that you would like to see addressed at the global level in order to facilitate more effective action related to your goals and work in your context. At this stage, for this initiative, the three main questions, on which we would very much welcome your analysis, ideas and proposals are: 

  1. What priority goals and themes would you propose as the focus of such a possible global mechanism to support you advancing your work?
  2. What strategic approach should such a possible mechanism take to work towards those goals?
  3. How would you recommend that such a mechanism be structured and organised?

The main ways to participate are:

  1. Conference Call: A series of conference calls are planned. The one for interested people and organisations in Africa will take place Thursday, March 9th at 4:30 pm Nairobi time. If you wish to participate please let me know by reply email and I will send the agenda and call-in numbers.
  2. Contribute through this forum: To contribute your assessment and ideas, and to share them with others for their information and response please either follow the links in this note and comment, or simply send those ideas by email reply to this note.
  3. Survey: Please complete the brief survey at this link. This survey includes some of the most important questions for this initiative.
  4. Group: Please Join the Group specifically set up for this process at this link.

With many thanks. We would very much welcome your input and ideas based on your experience and analysis.

Best wishes - Warren

Warren Feek            
Executive Director          
The Communication Initiative

Comments

Submitted by Dimario Sullivan on Mon, 02/05/2018 - 09:30 Permalink

This type of consultation involving ICT is a crucial to SBCC development. It is particularly important in breaking barriers of geograpghy and increase the reach of various communication designs in SBCC.