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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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Adolescent pregnancy prevention: an abstinence-centered randomized controlled intervention in a Chilean public high school

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Cabezón, C., P. Vigil, et al. (2005). "Adolescent pregnancy prevention: an abstinence-centered randomized controlled intervention in a Chilean public high school." Journal of Adolescent Health 36(1): 64-69.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of an abstinence-centered sex education program in adolescent pregnancy prevention, the TeenSTAR Program was applied in a high school in Santiago, Chile.

Methods: A total of 1259 girls from a Santiago high school were divided into three cohorts depending on the year they started high school: the 1996 cohort of 425 students, which received no intervention; the 1997 cohort, in which 210 students received an intervention and 213 (control group) did not; and the 1998 cohort, in which 328 students received an intervention and 83 (control group) did not. Students were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups in these cohorts, before starting with the program. We conducted a prospective, randomized study using the application of the TeenSTAR sex education program during the first year of high school to the intervention groups in the 1997 and 1998 cohorts. All cohorts were followed up for 4 years; pregnancy rates were recorded and subsequently contrasted in the intervention and control groups. Pregnancy rates were measured and Risk Ratio with 95% confidence interval were calculated for intervention and control groups in each cohort.

Results: Pregnancy rates for the intervention and control groups in the 1997 cohort were 3.3% and 18.9%, respectively (RR: 0.176, CI: 0.076-0.408). Pregnancy rates for the intervention and control groups in the 1998 cohort were 4.4% and 22.6%, respectively (RR 0.195, CI: 0.099-0.384).

Conclusions: The abstinence-centered TeenSTAR sex education intervention was effective in the prevention of unintended adolescent pregnancy.