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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BBC WST Leprosy Project - All Singing and Dancing

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Summary

Many people in India continue to have very little access to mass media, particularly in remote areas with significant tribal and scheduled-caste communities.


The BBC World Service Trust supported more than 1,700 live theatre performances in villages, small towns and urban slums throughout the project's five focus states to widen the reach of the campaign messages.


Approximately 500,000 people attended these dialect-based performances, which were based on popular-entertainment forms, including folk songs, magic shows and drama.


The Trust aimed to maximise audience participation and ensured the presence of a local government health officer at each show to advise on diagnosis and provide referrals to local health clinics.


The results, as measured by the ORG Centre for Social Research, showed that the song and drama performances were successful in improving knowledge about symptoms and treatment, while reducing myths and stigma.





Comparisons were made between villages that had seen song and drama performances and those that had not. The performances had a major impact on people's willingness to associate with leprosy patients.




For more information, please see The Drum Beat 133.