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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Rising Voices Micro-Grant Proposals for Citizen Media Outreach

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Rising Voices is seeking project proposals from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or individuals for funding of up to US$4,000 for digital media outreach projects around the world. According to the organisation, ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to under-represented communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, or podcasting on their own.

“This funding opportunity is open to both NGOs and private individuals. However, if an NGO does not have experienced citizen media trainers on their staff, it is extremely important that they seek collaboration with the local blogging community to find the right trainer(s) with the necessary skills. On the other hand, it would also be highly beneficial for individual applicants to partner with an existing NGO from the communities they plan to serve in order to strengthen the project's impact.... Rising Voices seeks project proposals that share [its] mission of bringing voices from new communities, as well as underrepresented language groups to the online global conversation through the use of citizen media. The projects' primary activities should be to provide citizen media training workshops to the target community, as well as ongoing support and mentoring to the participants....

Examples of potential projects include:

  • Distributing flip video cameras to local residents to help map and document environmental issues affecting the area and to propose solutions.
  • Partnering with a local library with a computer lab to train youth how to record and document the history of their local neighborhood by using mp3 recorders to interview local elders.
  • Organizing blogging workshop for local artisans to help them market their work online, but also tell the story and history of their handicrafts.
  • Distributing $10 digital cameras to two different groups in different neighborhoods and create a Flickr group where they interact with each other's photographic perspectives of their city.”
Application Info

Click here for more information, available in English, Malagasy, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Russian.

Click here for an online application form, or click here for an application form in PDF format (Note: This is for preparation purposes only. Answers must be entered into the online application for funding consideration.)

Date
Source

Email from Michelle Hibler to The Communication Initiative on January 12 2011.