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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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Bridging emergency contraceptive pill users to regular contraception: results from a randomized trial in Jamaica

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Chin-Quee, D. S., M. Wedderburn, et al. (2010). "Bridging emergency contraceptive pill users to regular contraception: results from a randomized trial in Jamaica." Contraception 81(2): 133-139.

Background: Emergency contraception research has shifted from examining the public health effects of increasing access to emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) to bridging ECP users to a regular contraceptive method as a way of decreasing unintended pregnancies.

Study design: In a randomized controlled trial in Jamaica, we tested a discount coupon for oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) among pharmacy-based ECP purchasers as an incentive to adopt (i.e., use for at least 2 months) this and other regular contraceptive methods. Women in the intervention and control arms were followed up at 3 and 6 months after ECP purchase to determine whether they adopted the OCP or any other contraceptive method. Condom use was recorded but was not considered a regular contraceptive due to its inconsistent use.

Results: There was no significant difference in the proportion of women who adopted the OCP, injectable or intrauterine device in the control group or the intervention group (p=.39), and only 14.6% of the sample (mostly OCP adopters) used one of these three methods. Condom use was high (44.0%), demonstrating that ECP users were largely a condom-using group.

Conclusions: The discount coupon intervention was not successful. Although a small proportion of ECP users did bridge, the coupon did not affect the decision to adopt a regular contraceptive method. The study highlighted the need for bridging strategies to consider women's reproductive and sexual behaviors, as well as their context. However, in countries like Jamaica where HIV/AIDS is of concern and condom use is appropriately high, bridging may not be an optimal strategy.