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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Teacher Training in Africa

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Working with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) African Productions, BBC Swahili Service, and Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) (through the Open University, United Kingdom - UK), this media campaign broadcast two weeks of radio news reports, documentaries, and discussion programmes about the importance of teacher training in Africa. The programmes, which were broadcast during June 2007, aimed to promote informed debate among teachers, educationalists, parents, policymakers, and the wider community on how the goal of "Education for All" can be achieved in Africa by 2015.
Communication Strategies

To focus on the issue of teacher training and education, the project made use of existing programmes being broadcast on the BBC World Service for Africa and the BBC Swahili Service. Programmes were in both English and Kiswahili and included the following:

  • Four 1-hour specials of the interactive programme "Africa Have Your Say", relating to teachers and education in Africa.
  • Two "African Perspectives" programmes focusing on teachers and schools in South Africa and Ghana.
  • Throughout the week, the BBC's daily programmes, "Network Africa" and "Focus on Africa", included special reports following two teachers from East and West Africa who swapped places for a week. This programme, called "Teacher Swap", showed the reactions and perspectives of teachers as they experienced teaching in another country's education system. Click here to hear the programmes on the TESSA website. The daily programmes also included special reports from around the continent called "Teaching in Africa". Click here to listen to these programmes on the TESSA website.
  • Documentaries, reports, interviews, and debates on teaching and education in East Africa were also featured on the regular BBC Swahili Service programmes "Amka Na BBC", "Dira Ya Dunia", and "Leo Afrika".
  • The BBC World Service Trust team in Nigeria created 30 three- to four-minute mini-dramas, which modeled scenarios that teachers might encounter during their working lives. These mini-dramas are available as an audio resource for use in teacher training on the TESSA website. Click here to access these resources.
  • The Nigeria team also collaborated with TESSA to produce a series of the popular radio drama "Story Story", highlighting the role of teachers in Africa.

In addition to radio programming, a dedicated Teachers in Africa website was created on the BBC Network Africa website, containing stories and views from the programmes.

Development Issues

Education.

Key Points

TESSA aims to support education in Africa by providing quality resources for training Africa's primary school teachers that can be accessed via the internet. These resources have been written and designed by staff from African partner institutions to equip primary school teachers with teaching skills in the key areas of literacy, numeracy, science, life skills, social studies, and the arts.

Partners

Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA), BBC African Productions, BBC Swahili Service, Open University UK.

Sources

BBC WST Education Update e-newsletter, July 16 2008; and BBC WST website on July 28 2008.

Teaser Image
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/assets/images/2008/02/080228africa_tessa_recording_200.jpg