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.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Published 15 years ago
Last updated 13 years ago
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Welcome to COMBI

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My dearest COMBI colleagues, I want you to know that I am being forced to use PowerPoint…especially by my Singapore colleagues. So I may graduate to this …one of these days. And now we have this additional feature of a COMBI platform on The Communication Initiative. The unveiling of this platform takes the concept of SMACK-ing to a new level. Some of you in the earlier IMC/COMBI training will have no idea what SMACK-ing means. It is about Mantra #2: Do nothing until you have done the Situational Market Analysis (SMA)…but we have added the reason for this: to discover the Communication Keys (CK) to engage people (consumers!) Hence SMA + CK = SMACK. So now we say: Do nothing until you have smacked the behaviour around with people in the community. And hence SMACK-ing. But do remember that it is not a slap...but more a kiss. And I am talking about the friendship kiss: The Osculum, the basic friendship kiss, and not the Savium, the French kiss!! (Again those in the earlier COMBI course would have no idea what all this refers to. So ask about this on the platform!) This new platform is a sweet opportunity for us to connect and in some cases re-connect with old friends and colleagues and reminisce about previous COMBI courses and how inexpensive the tuition was! Plus learning so much about the Refractory Period! More importantly this platform will help us reach out to others during the often painful and frustrating periods as we go through developing and implementing our COMBI plans. It is a place where if you are still new (trust this is not the case!) to COMBI planning, perhaps you can get ideas or learn from other COMBI practitioners and existing plans for similar health issues you are dealing with. If you need a wall to bounce your ideas against, ask for advice, search for documents or anything really, this is the place where you can turn. If you have any feedback or suggestions or you feel that there is something critically missing, do let the COMBI folks in WHO know by dropping them a line in the feedback box. Cheers and happy SMACKI-ing, the deliciously frustrating part of our work. Everold