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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Global Observatory for eHealth

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The World Health Organization (WHO) General Assembly endorsed the establishment of the Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) in 2005 to study and understand the impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) for health by providing up-to-date, reliable information and guidance on best practice, policies, standards, access, and security in the eHealth domain. According to the WHO, the first global survey on eHealth conducted in 2005 provided for the first time global baseline data on the current state of eHealth, and a set of recommendations for Member States. The second global survey on eHealth will be conducted in early 2009. Key areas of interest include: policy and strategy frameworks; funding; infrastructure; legal and ethical issues; Electronic Medical Records; eLearning; and mHealth.
Communication Strategies

The Observatory aims to:

 

  • Establish a research network - expand the Observatory's operations to include national and regional groups and thematic working groups on specific eHealth topics, as well as streamline data collection and reporting through the use of ICT.
  • Develop a framework for analysis - design a comprehensive framework to uniformly describe and analyse eHealth at all levels - sub-national, country, regional,, and global.
  • Establish indicators for monitoring - develop and agree on indicators to measure eHealth within and across countries.
  • Promote best practices - collect, assess, and publish evidence to assist countries in adopting best practices.
  • Policy - evaluate the impact of national policy, regulations, and legislation on eHealth, and assess the impact of eHealth on health systems.
  • Report - publish reports on special areas of interest in eHealth.
Development Issues

Health, Technology

Key Points

Selected findings of the first global survey on eHealth conducted in 2005 include the following:

• Digital divide includes the domain of eHealth
• eHealth policies are to be implemented in many countries in the near future and Member States require assistance from WHO
• National eHealth governance mechanisms need to be built and supported
• Numbers of public-private partnerships are increasing and effective practices should be promoted
• Citizen protection policies to ensure patient confidentiality need to be made a priority
• Interoperability issues need to be addressed in many Member States
• Production of multilingual eHealth information should be given increased support


The recommendations for action broadly encompass three areas: strengthening the baseline policies for provision of ICT for health; supporting citizen protection, equity of access, and multilingualism; and promoting the growth of eHealth capacity, tools, and services.


To access detailed information on the 2005 survey, please see the following:
Building Foundations for eHealth - Progress of Member States (January 2007) [PDF format]

eHealth TOOLS & SERVICES - Needs of the Member States (January 2006) [PDF format]

Partners

Collaborating organisations include Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH), International Medical Informatics Association International (IMIA), and 3Helix.

Sources

World Health Organization (WHO) Mozambique eNews, March 6 2006, and email from Dr. Misha Kay to The Communication Initiative on January 19 2009.