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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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Effects of early childhood psychosocial stimulation and nutritional supplementation on cognition and education in growth-stunted Jamaican children: prospective cohort study

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Walker, S. P., S. M. Chang, et al. (2005). "Effects of early childhood psychosocial stimulation and nutritional supplementation on cognition and education in growth-stunted Jamaican children: prospective cohort study." Lancet (British edition) 966(9499): 1804-1807.

Methods: Growth retardation affects about a third of children younger than age 5 years in developing countries and is associated with poor development. During 1986-99, we did a trial of nutritional supplementation and psychosocial stimulation in stunted children aged 9-24 months in Kingston, Jamaica. Non-stunted children were also assessed.

Results: Both types of intervention improved development. We now present the effects of early interventions on cognition and education in 103 of the 129 stunted children and compare them with 64 of the 84 non-stunted children now aged 17-18 years. This follow-up study was done during 2002-03. We recorded no significant effects of nutritional supplementation. Compared with no intervention, stimulation resulted in higher full scale IQ scores (coefficient 0.38, 95% CI 0.06-0.71, p=0.02) and higher scores on the verbal subscale (0.37, 0.07-0.68, p=0.02), Peabody picture vocabulary test (7.84, 0.73-14.95, p=0.03), verbal analogies (0.26, 0.03-0.49, p=0.03), and reading tests (4.73, 1.31-8.14, p=0.007, and 2.7, 1.12-4.37, p=0.001). Overall, stunted non-stimulated participants had significantly poorer scores than the non-stunted group on 11 of 12 cognitive and educational tests. Stunting in early childhood is associated with cognitive and educational deficits in late adolescence, which are reduced by stimulation at a young age.