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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Health System Research - East and Southern African

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The Health Systems Research (HSR) Project is a regional programme of the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO). Covering 46 member states in Eastern and Southern Africa, HSR is an effort to improve the health of the people by making optimal use of research. It aims to provide relevant information to health managers and policy-makers at all levels to foster decision-making and, ultimately, stronger health systems and services in the region.
Communication Strategies

HSR aims to bridge the gap between research efforts and research needs through a participatory, interdisciplinary approach that involves health managers as well as health care providers and users in the process of problem identification and analysis. HSR's strategic focus is on contributing to the generation of evidence-based information for use by policymakers and health managers at all levels of the health system.


Specific activities include:

  • Advocacy to create awareness and consensus-building on the value and uses of HSR through national consultative meetings involving stakeholders in health research,policies, and programmes.
  • Capacity building through HSR training, training of trainers, and the integration of research in selected curricula; development of HSR training materials. The training modules were developed by the Joint HSR Project in close cooperation with researchers from the region and, in a later stage, with the Public Health Institute of Kuala Lumpur.
  • Technical and financial support to conduct research and promote the use of results.
  • Strengthening of HSR institutions through the establishment of HSR units and appointment of HSR Focal Points (HSR/FPs); sharing experiences and joint planning; Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC).
  • Networking through inter-country meetings, publications, and linkages with institutional andinternational agencies and other donors.

Specifically, to detail the latter approach, networking is a major instrument in promoting HSR; to that end, many planning, research, and dissemination activities are carried out on an inter-country basis. The first inter-country meeting among the countries involved identifying 3 main areas for concentrated effort in their action plans:

  • Strengthening of local structures to promote HSR
  • Strengthening of local capabilities to conduct HSR
  • Enhancing internal and inter-country communication with respect to HSR
Development Issues

Health.

Key Points

The concept of HSR has been developed particularly to address the problem of poor use of research results. "The long term objective of this project is to promote health in the countries of the Eastern and Southern African region through improved performance of the health care system, based on the principles of equity, participation and quality, through integration of health systems research in the decision and policy making process at all levels."

Sources

KIT website.