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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Labour Community Radio Project

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The Labour Community Radio Project is an initiative of Worker's World Media Productions (WWMP), which has been running since 2002 in South Africa. The show has a labour focus, but deals with issues ranging from housing, education, healthcare, and work to political and economic matters.
Communication Strategies

The project consists of a one-hour weekly live show broadcast on approximately 40 community radio stations around the country. It is also being broadcast on various radio stations of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

WWMP provides training to the presenters and producers of these shows. They also provide production support with a weekly CD consisting of an 8-minute feature on the topic of the week, 5-minute labour news review and 3-minute HIV/AIDS insert. The shows are broadcast in 5 South African languages: English, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, and Sesotho.

Development Issues

Economic Development, Labour

Key Points

WWMP was formed during September - December 1997, when a collective of labour service organisations carried out a radio pilot project, called Workers World. It consisted of 12 weekly 30-minute slots on Bush Radio, a community radio station, focusing on issues relevant to workers and the labour movement. At the evaluation meeting at the end of the pilot project, participating organisations agreed to set up a semi-independent radio production project, based on the need for radio productions focusing on labour-related issues. WWMP now aims "to be the recognised and desired production house for quality media productions serving the working class and labour."

Sources

WWMP website on December 5 2008 and March 29 2010.

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