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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Social and Behaviour Change Communication Approaches Course

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This course forms part of a series of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) short courses within the University of Witwatersrand's Masters of Public Health programme, which have been developed by the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication and the University of Witwatersrand, School of Public Health.

According to the course developers, social and behaviour change communication has a critical role to play in promoting health and wellbeing, preventing illness, and assisting with health literacy to bring people into the health system appropriately and ensure compliance with treatment measures. Strategies that can be utilised to address some of the social determinants of health include advocacy and social mobilisation. These strategies have been demonstrated to be effective in facilitating the implementation and introduction of health policies like tobacco control. It is important for practitioners to develop an understanding and set of skills in evidence-based advocacy and social mobilisation.

This course seeks to develop the capacity of participants to:

  • Describe the evidence-base for different approaches, “methods” or strategies such as: peer education, advocacy, edutainment, social marketing and social mobilisation for enhancing and fostering social and behavior change;
  • Discuss the theoretical underpinnings of different approaches;
  • Apply the most advantageous mix of approaches for their programming context;
  • Select an approach based on the determinants that are underlying the issue; and
  • Critique, using evidence, the different approaches including IEC, edutainment, and advocacy.

The short courses are supported by Communication for Change (C-Change), a USAID-funded health and development communication project, and UK Department for International Development (DFID).

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