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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Post 2015 Development Agenda

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Author: Tassawar Ali, September 5 2013       After the end of 2015, the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] will be revised, and the world is looking into the post 2015 development agenda. So, a new development agenda will carry forward the spirit of a new millennium declaration and the best of the MDGs, with a practical focus on things like poverty, hunger, water and sanitation, education and health care. The new declaration not only focuses on promotion of sustainable development, but also will be effective for reducing conflict and violence. In the new declaration, before setting an agenda of post 2015, different consultations have been conducted by a high level panel of eminent persons and this panel listened to the views of women and men, young people, parliamentarians, civil society organizations, indigenous people and local communities.

Most important is that this panel meets thousands of people in the world. This high level panel considered the massive changes in the world. In this declaration and post 2015 agenda, world population is considered a big challenge because in 2030 world population will be eight billion. This post 2015 agenda is called a universal agenda for all countries, aimed at sustaining global prosperity in the coming decades. Post 2015 goals are showing bold commitments in five areas like "leave no one behind", "put sustainable development at the core", "transform economics", "build peace and effective and accountable institutions" and "forge new global partnerships". These commitments are a fundamental shift, to recognize peace and good governance as core elements of wellbeing in the world. There is a new spirit, also part of the agenda - solidarity, cooperation and mutual accountability. These goals are universally relevant and actionable; the new agenda commitments are clear for tackling the causes of poverty, exclusion and inequality.

The government and civil society of Pakistan need to prepare, joining hands and strengthening this post 2015 global partnership, and feel responsibility for achieving our next goals.

"Pakistan's limited success with meeting the MDGs can be attributed to uncoordinated implementation, lack of local capacity in terms of human and financial resources, affecting service delivery, and a dearth of fiscal discipline, contributing towards diversion of pro-poor expenditures into other uses. This is evidenced by recent cuts in public sector development programs in education and health and fund diversion towards short term cash-based social safety nets and to elected representatives for discretionary spending in their own constituencies. Further, the past list of MDGs was not comprehensive enough to address the challenges faced by Pakistan. Issues that were severely neglected include food security, climate change and a comprehensive strategy for youth engagement." From Vaqar Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan, Sandee Newsletter No. 25 Spring 2013   

We have needed to improve our stated goals with full responsibility.

There is no hesitation that the scope of the post 2015 is broad, blending social progress, equitable growth and environmental management. We hope to leave the post 2015 agenda impact by 2030 as a world that will be: equal, more prosperous, more peaceful and more just than that of today.