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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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An E-reader Intervention with Community Engagement - Girls' Literacy Improved

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Strategy researched

An e-reader intervention embedded in a "safe space" platform and including community engagement activities, which sought to improve literacy, as well as numeracy and non-verbal reasoning in adolescent girls

Impact achieved

56.3% increase in scores on the basic literacy assessment for the arm that included the e-reader & facilitated book group vs. 44.8% for the safe-spaces-only arm & 34.9% for the control arm.

Country of study

Zambia

Research methodology

3-arm RCT

Journal

Journal of Development Effectiveness; 2021

Journal paper title and link

Effects of an e-reader intervention on literacy, numeracy and non-verbal reasoning among adolescent girls in Zambia: evidence from a randomised controlled trial

Excerpt from Abstract

"The intent-to-treat estimates indicate that girls in the e-reader arm scored significantly better on two basic literacy assessments as well as non-verbal reasoning compared with girls in the control arm."

Summary at this link