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

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Conditional Cash Transfer - Increased Net Enrolment Rate by 7.1%

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Strategy researched

Conditional cash transfer programme in Indonesia that seeks to improve academic performance of the most economically vulnerable students by ensuring increased student school enrolment and attendance at elementary and junior high school level

Impact achieved

The Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) increased net enrolment rate by 7.1% and the gross participation rate for junior high school students by 7.6%. PKH significantly improved student attendance at the elementary level (6.76%). PKH delivered significant results in terms of school examination achievement at the junior high school level for Bahasa Indonesia, Mathematics, and English.

Country of study

Indonesia

Research methodology

RCT with 14,400 households

Journal

Cogent Social Sciences; 2017

Journal paper title and link

Evaluation of poverty alleviation policy: Can conditional cash transfers improve the academic performance of poor students in Indonesia?

Excerpt from Abstract

"Evaluation of the PKH found that it has been able to increase net enrolment rate by 7.1% and the gross participation rate for junior high school students by 7.6%. Nonetheless, PKH has yet to yield significant increases in enrolment and gross participation rate at the primary school level. PKH significantly improves student attendance at the elementary level but, contrarily, has not shown a significant impact on junior high school attendance. PKH delivers significant results in terms of school examination achievement at the junior high school level for Bahasa Indonesia, Mathematics and English, as well as national examinations for Mathematics. However, the basic education in Indonesia is still unable to address issues of the teacher absenteeism (in both elementary and junior high schools) and the lack of quality educational facilities."