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Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
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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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Evidence: Effects of Sesame Street: A Meta-analysis of Children's Learning in 15 Countries

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Effects of Sesame Street: A Meta-analysis of Children's Learning in 15 Countries

Editor's note: For a summary of this paper on The CI website, click here.

Name(s) of author(s)?:

Marie-Louise Mares and Zhongdang Pan

Who published this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology - Volume 34, Issue 3, May–June 2013, Pages 140-151

What are the best extracts that highlight the evidence for the impact of a communication for development, social change, behaviour change, public engagement, or informed citizen strategy on a development issue and priority?:

Researchers found an overall effect size of 0.29. This translates into an 11.6 percentile gain (in terms of education). That is, an average child who does not watch Sesame Street is at the 50th percentile, whereas a child who watches is at the 62nd percentile.

To which development issue does this evidence and impact data relate?:

Education, Early Child Development

To which strategic approach(es) does the evidence and impact data relate?:

Entertainment-Education

What research methodology (ies) was/were used to produce this evidence and impact data?:

A meta-analysis of 24 studies of the effects of Sesame Street internationally.

What is the URL to access this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397313000026

Why was this research evidence found to be useful?:

(a) at-scale, global work in different contexts (b) everyone knows Sesame (c) key development issue - Education (d) direct connection to impact (e) independent academics undertook (f) reduces impact to one number (g) appears in a leading non-communication journal.

Participating organisations in the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change - Building Informed and Engaged Societies were asked to identify, in their opinion, the 5 most compelling research and evaluation studies that demonstrate the direct impact of this field of work on a major development issue. This was one of the nominees. For the full compiled list, please click here. For the compilation of the key impact data across all research evidence identified, please click here.