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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Building Electronic Communities and Networks: IMARK Learning Module

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Developed as part of the Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) learning modules by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) , this resource covers the approaches, methods, and tools used to build electronic communities, and covers the various steps and procedures for developing and facilitating electronic communities. The total curriculum consists of 29 lessons, ranging from approximately 15 to 90 minutes duration, grouped into five units, for a total of about 16 to 22 hours of self-paced instruction.

The module has been designed for coordinators and facilitators of established or incipient communities, as well as groups of individuals with shared interests in agricultural and rural development.

Contents:

Unit 1 - Online communities - new opportunities
This unit covers the benefits and opportunities offered by online communities to facilitate knowledge and information exchange, and describes the key factors for a successful online community.

Unit 2 - Understanding needs and assessing opportunities
This unit explains how to conduct a needs analysis for an online community, how to develop a team and define goals, and looks at the technical, financial, institutional and social issues involved in designing an online community.

Unit 3 - Options, choices, tools and applications
This unit illustrates a wide range of interactive tools and applications for building an online community, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they affect the nature of the community.

Unit 4 - Designing an online community
This unit provides guidelines for the design of an online community including introducing online communication in your organisation, the professional roles required, the technical choices to be made, and how to plan for marketing, training and evaluation activities.

Unit 5 - Online facilitation
This unit provides guidelines on how to facilitate an online community and introduces the basic concepts of facilitation, compares traditional and online facilitation, and illustrates a wide range of facilitation tasks and techniques.

The training may be accessed by registering online (which is free) or requesting the CD-ROM.

Click here to request a copy of the CD-rom online.

Publishers

Source

Email from Charlotte Masiello to The Communication Initiative, April 28 2006.