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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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All interested parties meeting - New York, June 27th and 28th, 2017

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Hi and thanks again for being such an important part of the consultation process for this possible global mechanism to support advancing the communication and media for development, social and behaviour change community. There are two developments on which we would very much welcome your further input and possible participation.

1. An all parties meeting is planned for June 27th and 28th, 2017 in New York, hosted by UNICEF. The Options paper that will be the major focus of the agenda for that event will be distributed soon for your comment and critique. It is derived from the extensive consultations of which you were such an important part - for which our thanks again. 

2. We are seeking to ensure that there is balanced participation in that "all parties" meeting in New York from across the different types of organisations. UN, bilateral agencies, governments, international NGOs and Foundations are all agreeing people to attend (iperhaps you have been approached). One vitally important part of our community is national NGOs and CSOs in Asian, Latin American, African, Caribbean and Oceanic countries. If you are in a senior position in such an organisation and are both interested in participating in the New York event and have possible support to attend, we would be very interested to discuss. Two quick clarifications: (a) as indicated unfortunately there are not funds to support travel and accommodation costs - those will be your responsibility from your own budgets or raised from your funders for this specific purpose and (b) the numbers at the event are limited so we can not guarantee a place to everyone interested. Thanks for letting us know. Can I suggest you contact Rafael and myself by return email. We will not be sharing those responses with the group of course! Many thanks for considering.

With thanks to everyone - more soon - Warren