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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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Diarrhoeal disease, oral rehydration, and childhood mortality in rural Egypt

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Langsten, R. and K. Hill (1994). "Diarrhoeal disease, oral rehydration, and childhood mortality in rural Egypt." Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 40(5): 272-278.

Background:  The Egyptian National Control of Diarrhoeal Diseases Project (NCDDP) is reported to have had great success in improving case management of diarrhoea, and in reducing diarrhoea-related mortality among children, while deaths due to other causes have remained unchanged. Recent reports have claimed that with this dramatic decline in diarrhoea mortality, respiratory infection is now the main cause of child death in Egypt. As a result, the degree of commitment to control of diarrhoeal disease activities has been greatly reduced.

Objective: We present new data from a large prospective study that confirms much of the success of the NCDDP, but which questions the extent of the claimed project impact on mortality. Child mortality has declined greatly over the past decade. However, deaths from other causes have declined almost as much as those from diarrhoea, and most importantly, diarrhoea remains the main cause of death among children. Our discussion demonstrates the need for appropriate methodology in evaluating the mortality impact of an intervention, and to the very great importance of reinvigorating control of diarrhoeal diseases activities in Egypt.