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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Published 19 years ago
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ICT For Development: Hope or Hype?

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Summary

In the opinions section of the online publication SciDev.Net, Athar Osama presents the argument that developing countries must solve problems of illiteracy, social mobility, government inefficiency and corruption, and lack of economic opportunities in order to reach the promise that the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution will be an enabling force leading to active participation in the global economy.

The author recognises widely publicised stories of ICT for development such as the Grameen Bank and Grameen Telephone and the MIT Laptop per Child initiative. India has its share of projects as a result of ICT policy in place since the early 1990s. These initiatives include: kiosks giving land transfer and pension information as well as agricultural, weather, market and medical information, and internet access for agricultural transactions.

From the author's perspective, real progress in ITC development has been quite different from "the hope and hype". He says that there is scant information or best practice sharing across projects and little or no impact on the lives of ordinary people.

He cites as supporting information an analysis of six projects by the Indian Institutes of Information Technology in Bangalore. The study indicates, for example, that some projects cannot pay kiosk operators a sufficient wage. Many projects have also failed to use kiosks to deliver critical information to local communities. Instead, they often derive the bulk of their utility and revenues as computer and photocopying shops or cyber cafes. Quality of service delivery is a problem, especially when it falls victim to inefficiency, corruption and patronage. The author also questions the effectiveness of the study-sites if they were to be expanded across India - where a project might need to be duplicated 10,000 times in order to reach the entire country.

In conclusion, the author calls for a closer examination of the promises of ICT in promoting real and sustainable development by looking clearly at the successes and the failures.

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SciDev.Net website