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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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Closing the gap between insecticide treated net ownership and use for the prevention of malaria

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Rickard, D. G., R. N. Dudovitz, et al. (2011). "Closing the gap between insecticide treated net ownership and use for the prevention of malaria." Progress in community health partnerships : research, education, and action 5(2): 123-131.

OBJECTIVE: Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years old and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) reduce clinical malaria by more than 50% and all cause mortality in young children by 15% to 30%. However, use of these nets is poor across sub-Saharan Africa, limiting the potential impact of this effective tool in the fight against malaria. We sought to improve the use of ITNs using a community-created and -implemented approach, and measure the change in ITN use over the year after implementation.

METHODS: Using a community-based participatory research approach, we created and implemented an intervention to improve ITN use in a rural village. Our intervention involved providing hands-on instructions and assistance in hanging of nets, in-home small group education, and monthly follow-up by trained community members. ITN use was measured for all individuals in a subset of the community (61 households, 759 individuals) at baseline and at 6 months and 1 year after distribution.

RESULTS: Rates of individual usage increased significantly from 29% at baseline to 88.7% (p < .001) at 6 months and to 96.6% (p < .001) at 12 months. For children under age 5, usage rates increased from 46% at baseline to 95.7% (p < .001) at 6 months and 95.4% (p < .001) at 12 months. Our study demonstrates that rapidly achieving and sustaining almost universal ITN usage rates is possible using a community-based approach. Closing the gap between ITN ownership and use will help communities to realize the full potential of ITNs in the prevention of malaria.