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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I-TECH Ethiopia Billboard Project

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Developed by the the United States (US)-based International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), a collaboration between the University of Washington and the University of California, San Francisco, this late 2010 initiative involved posting billboards in Ethiopia to remind the local community to use condoms. The I-TECH Ethiopia project, funded through US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) includes creating or replacing such signs in an effort to promote positive health messages (often called "behaviour change communication", or BCC) in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions of the country.

Communication Strategies

Late in 2010, I-TECH Ethiopia, through the CDC, was made responsible for establishing three respective regional task forces in the 3 regional health bureaus. The goal of the initiative was to identify HIV and AIDS prevention-, care-, and treatment-related IEC (information, education, and communication)/BCC challenges, and to identify ways to overcome these challenges and "get the word out". The task forces had to develop ways to communicate messages in the right places and in a way that would resonate with the people of each region.

 

To determine which messages would do the most good (promoting adherence to antiretroviral treatment? messages for new mothers and pregnant women about prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV? condom use?) and to select the best media, consultants working on behalf of I-TECH mapped the location of existing billboards. They also conducted a series of discussions with key informants selected from the regional health bureaus, regional HIV/AIDS prevention control offices, hospitals, and woreda/city administration health offices and health centres. Together, this group identified current local priorities and needs. After these discussions, the consultants went out to take a look at existing billboards and messages, and found that many of them were damaged, missing, or hard to read.

 

With this information in mind, I-TECH produced and mounted several new billboards. This time, they updated the messages and put them in bustling areas, such as hospitals and bus stations, where they had the potential to be seen by more people. I-TECH also produced other IEC/BCC materials regionally, including posters and an educational film.

Development Issues

HIV/AIDS.

Key Points

Commenting on the message development process, Tariku Negatu, an I-TECH consultant, explained that the messages on the billboards and in other media were "selected and pre-tested [to be] socially, culturally and politically appropriate to the local specific contexts..."

Partners

I-TECH, CDC.

Sources

"Public Health Messages Promote Prevention, Care, and Treatment in Ethiopia", June 10 2011.

Comments

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:32 Permalink

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