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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Launching Ring the Bell - A Report

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Summary

"The younger generation is most active on social media, and will help in creating the right buzz to stop violence against women." - Asian Age, March 8 2013

This report illustrates some data from the March 8 2013 global launch of Ring the Bell (Bell Bajao), a multimedia entertainment-education campaign that asks for social intervention - especially on the part of men - to bring domestic violence to a halt.

In honour of International Women's Day 2013, Ring the Bell undertook a specific social media strategy in an attempt to galvanise at least 1 million committed men around the world and to garner at least 1 million promises to take concrete action to make the world safe for women and girls. Organisers launched a call to action in Dehli, India, Johannesburg, South Africa, New York (NY), United States (US), and Rio Di Janeiro, Brazil. Viral digital and physical media campaigns - via Facebook, Twitter [@bell_bajao (#ringthebell)], text messaging (SMS: BELL and send it to 56767), email (send pledge to ipromise@breakthrough.tv), etc. - are designed to call for pledges and promises and to provoke debates, discussions, and education. Men then upload their promises and concrete actions to the campaign website, where contributions are being gathered for accountability and advocacy.

The first pages of the report highlight state-specific activities conducted in India, where Ring the Bell (RTB) was originally launched. For example, in Karnataka, rallies, a film screening, and silent march drew more than 5,000 spectators. Other activities throughout the country have included all-female sports competitions/races, capacity-building at a women's college, and musical performances.

Media coverage of these activities led to 90-100 press impressions in 2 major languages. This report also includes social media data; for example, at the #ringthebell hashtag, there were 23,255,889 impressions on March 8 2013. During launch week, there were 1,485,410 total impressions at the campaign website. Both blogging about social issues related to RTB and the celebrity video promises (see an example, below) have also reportedly increased.

Click here for the 12-page report in PDF format.



Source

Emails from Urvashi Gandhi (including a PowerPoint presentation) to The Communication Initiative on April 12 2013 and April April 17 2013.