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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Big Noise - Global

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In April 2002, Oxfam launched a campaign that uses online strategies to advocate for fair trade. The purpose of Big Noise is to engender cooperative local and global action to make market trade fair. As of this writing, over 4 million people around the world have signed the petition, which has been presented to key decision makers at international events.
Communication Strategies
Big Noise uses online email campaigns to gather signatures to present at major worldwide conferences. For example, at the Earth summit in September 2002 the President of South Africa and the Prime Minister of Denmark received a CD of messages from people who had joined Big Noise. In December 2002 Big Noise members sent 50,000 emails to protest Nestlé's actions to claim US$6 million from the government of Ethiopia. After one week Nestlé retreated. At the September 2003 World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Cancun, Mexico, musicians from the rock group Coldplay handed over the Big Noise petition to the head of the WTO.

Big Noise relies heavily on its website to gather signatures on an ongoing basis (to sign the petition, click here). The interactive website also provides a host of action tools and resources for citizens seeking to make a statement about free trade. The "act now" section offers a campaigning toolkit that includes online resources to support writing letters, sending emails, organising events, promoting the campaign through local media, and other actions expressing support for free trade. Citizens are urged to communicate with each other and with those in positions of power using these resources.
Development Issues

Rights, Economic Development.

Key Points
According to Oxfam, world trade rules are currently rigged against the poor. For example, as detailed on the Big Noise site, the 4 big coffee companies - Nestlé, Kraft, Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee - make big profits while paying coffee farmers the lowest prices in 100 years. In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who in June 2003 added the millionth name to the petition, "Trade has the potential to lift millions of poor people around the world out of poverty but currently it is doing the opposite..."
Partners

Consumers International (CI), Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), European Fair Trade Association (EFTA), Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT), International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), International Union of Food (IUF), Network of European World Shops (NEWS!), Third World Network (TWN), Third World Network Africa (TWN Africa), World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Sources

OneWorld International Partner News, June 2003; Big Noise site.