Children
Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
Children

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

Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 12 years ago
Last updated 2 years ago
Read so far

Nutritional Traditions Need Behaviour Change Communication

0 comments

Author: Rana Tassawar Ali, November 12 2013      In Pakistan, there are many factors leading to conditions resulting in malnutrition. Overall, the country is unaware of this chronic issue. The literacy rate of women and girls is 12-26 percent - few women are educated.  There is strong evidence in the National Nutrition survey (NNS2011) that poor breastfeeding is one of the main causes of malnutrition in Pakistan. Every year, thousands of mothers lose their babies due to use of formula milk and poor breastfeeding. According to a survey conducted by an organization working on malnutrition: 84 percent of mothers are advised by health care practitioners to use formula milk. For this reason, the formula milk industry in Pakistan is growing fast. Unethical marketing is also a cause of the increased use of formula milk among mothers - various studies provide evidence that health care practitioners receive gifts from multinational producers of this product.

In Pakistan, there are so many different traditional practices that are the big hurdle in exclusive breastfeeding. The urban and rural division in the country creates gaps in behavior change communications. In urban areas, mostly families engage in feeding formula milk, and, in rural areas, traditional poor practices are the cause of malnutrition. In our country, pre-lacteal feeding (Ghutti) and honey are commonly given to newborn babies. The cultural variations also provide evidence of other forms of pre-lacteal feed, including “Gurr’’ (jaggery) more commonly given in northern areas of Punjab/KP/ Gilgit-Baltistan.  There is a finding that watered donkey’s milk, which is perceived to prevent epilepsy, is also given in Gilgit Baltistan.

Pakistan is like most other developing countries in terms of diseases in children under the age of five. Social, cultural, political and economic factors are not helpful in improving the malnutrition situation in the country. At this time, the situation requires full stakeholder support in terms of investing in nutrition, allocating of resources, and creating strong behavior change communication messages to discourage harmful traditional practices.

It is a responsibility of the State to provide protection and promotion of breastfeeding practices.  The government of Pakistan must implement legislation enhancing practices of exclusive breast feeding.