Development action with informed and engaged societies

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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I am a Child But I Have My Rights Too!

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"I am a child but I have my rights too!" is a radio programme produced by children and aired across West Africa. Broadcast since 1998, the show informs parents, children, and authorities about their roles and responsibilities to respect children's rights. The project, championed by Plan, an independent organisation dedicated to working with and for children, is aimed at promoting children's rights through the airwaves.
Communication Strategies

The radio campaign project is broadcast in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, and Benin. Up to 10 radio stations in each country (including public, private, rural, and community radio stations) air the programme, adapting the programme to that particular country's culture.


Thirty stories promote the right to go to school, to have access to water that is suitable for drinking, to grow up healthy, and to be protected against exploitation. The stories involve hundreds of professional comedians and children (about 600 children and young people from 6 to 18 years of age). Apart from promoting and informing listeners about child rights issues, participation of children is a major component of the project. Children participate directly in the production but also get involved in the broadcast through interviews and debates, radio contests, and poems, letters, and drawings sent to the stations.

Development Issues

Rights, Children.

Key Points

Demonstrating children in active roles, as capable agents for social change, is key to the dialogue on the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). (To read more about the CRC treaty, visit the CRC website.)

Partners

Plan, CRC.

Sources

Programme page on Plan site on September 12 2003.