Development action with informed and engaged societies

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
Read so far

India Polio Learning Exchange

0 comments
Image
SummaryText

"Here you'll find the UNICEF-led communication strategies and materials that have contributed to a polio-free India - the posters, banners, field books, flip books, micro plans, forms, tables and more, to give a nuts-and-bolts explanation of how the India polio eradication programme works."

From the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) India, this website documents the communication strategies and resources that emerged from India's role in the Global Programme for Eradication of Polio (GPEI). UNICEF Representative to India Louis-Georges Arsenault launched the website on World Polio Day 2013 with the following message: "The website documents communication efforts in India, which played an important role in the journey from 200,000 polio cases to zero polio. India has overcome huge challenges to ensure that the polio vaccine reached all children, multiple times every year, even in the remotest corners of the country. India's journey to zero polio has been marked with innovative strategies and approaches - the Social Mobilization Network, partnerships with the community, religious leaders and institutions - to enable complete community ownership of the polio programme. To learn from India's experience, a number of missions have been made to and from the remaining endemic countries. The website is an effort to share India polio programme's best practices to benefit other programmes both within and outside the country and most importantly those still fighting the scourge of polio."

The website includes polio films, a photo gallery, access to reports and materials, information about the Social Mobilization Network and polio immunisation campaigns, details about differing state approaches, strategies (e.g., in the area of capacity development), ideas for conducting monitoring and evaluation (including communication indicators), and emergency and preparedness materials, such as a poster and training manual for frontline workers.

Publishers

Source

Email from Shamila Sharma to The Communication Initiative on October 27 2013; and India Polio Learning Exchange, October 28 2013. Image caption/credit: Vaccinators of a transit team on the Malegaon-Dhulia Highway in Maharashtra stop all vehicles, private and public, looking out for un-vaccinated children under 5 years, and give them polio drops. (Sandeep Biswas, September 2012)