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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UNV Arab Youth Volunteering Initiative

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In August 2012, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme launched the "Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future" initiative, which aims to build the skills and capacities of young people in the Arab States and enhance their participation in the socio-economic development of their communities through volunteering. The initiative will lead to a regional programme covering Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Communication Strategies

UNV and its partners recognise that youth volunteering can engage young men and women in a range of activities that can improve their participation and positively harness their energy to contribute to the achievement of local, national, and global development goals. At the same time, involvement in volunteering can enhance their life, citizenship, and work-related skills.

 

Online volunteers are one form of involvement. Translation teams work to make relevant documents available in the three main languages of the region, Arabic, French, and English. Their support is intended to engage stakeholders and beneficiaries in the development of the programme, for example through the exploratory national consultations held in each of the five countries, for which online volunteers translated the facilitation tools.

 

Online volunteers also edit, translate, and create the layout of the consultations report. Others support the programme development by researching and analysing data on youth and volunteering in the Arab States, including the findings of the national consultations. The design team intends to take up the work of developing brochures and other communication tools that will help UNV to promote the programme.

 

Development Issues

Youth

Key Points

The UNV programme is the UN organisation that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. "UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UN Volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity."

 

In October 2012, UNV held a regional consultation workshop with stakeholders in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss the findings from five national consultations and made an agreement on the strategic directions for the future of the programme. Participants included youth, civil society organisations, government representatives, UN agencies, and development partners.

 

Sources

UNV website, December 9 2012.