The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative

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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Communications update - December 7, 2017

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Hi folks and thanks for your engagement in the Summit planning process. Below is an update sent to the Communications group and now shared with you. Thank you for your efforts re communciating the Summit to your staff, networks, partners, etc - very much appreciated. Specific recognition for the orgs in the communications sub-group which has had a laser focus on helping to ensure that relevant people in development know about the Summit, that we have have people attending (registrations) and that there is knowledge to share and debate (the abstracts). So, specific thanks to the Consortium for Press Freedom; Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs; International Social Marketing Association; Global Fourm for Media Development; Communication for Development Network; Populations Services International (PSI) and The CI also chipped in - all contributed in a big way to the data below. Most happy to answer any questions. 

NOTE TO COMMUNICATIONS SUB-GROUP - December 7, 2017

Hi folks. We have all been working in the first phase of our communications strategy to focus on ensuring that there was content for the Summit (the abstracts) and people to attend (registrations). With the abstracts process have closed yesterday (December 6, 2017) I wanted to provide you with a quick update ... and to express the thanks of everyone involved in this process for your engagement and action that has made a huge contributio to the numbers below. Through your network and membership communications, as well as efforts from others involved in planning the Summit, we are in the following position:

Total Abstracts submitted - 1,287

This is a very healthy number - congrats! They will now be reviewed by the programme sub-group and selections will be made for the Summit. From a quick review a few days ago they are focused on a good cross-section of all of our work. I will try to udpate on this soon. 

Total registrations to date - 178

As the closing date is not until March 1, 2018 this is an excellent start. Of course lots of the people and orgs behind the 1,287 abstract submissions above may be waiting to see if those abstracts are selected before registering. There were also 192 people (memory - check) who started the registration process and left it. We are looking at this in order to understand. It could be related to the payment page! If you are amenable to sending further communications to your networks and memberships this week can I suggest that these focus on the early bird registration discount closing on December 15th. But I suggest at this stage that the numbers above are not communicated. The abstracts just closed and we will propose soon some substantive text re that number and registrations.

Thanks again - tremendous effort by all. I will write again soon with a suggested next meeting date and time. Apologies that due to travel this has been a bit messy lately. When the early brd registration closes we can turn to focus on the fun stuff of the substantial communicatons strategy around the Summit that is inclusive of both those attending and not able to attend - networks, groups, comments, video streaming, debate, dialogue, ratings, social media streams and lots of others!

Best wishes - Warren