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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. 

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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Success through social media in Nigeria

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Author: Aveseh Asough, September 17 2013      "Isn't Facebook just for dating?" That was the response I got at the beginning of a social media training session I was running for staff at our partner radio stations in Nigeria. And it's a common response - particularly from older journalists. So let me tell you a story of success which I use to convince them otherwise.

It's the story of Rita Egwujovbo, who produces and presents a programme on one of our partner stations, Hot FM. Called Dateline Abuja, the programme was started by Rita five years ago and sets out to give local people a voice in how their country is run. 

At first, Rita didn't use any social media platforms at all. But after taking part in BBC Media Action training, she created a Facebook page and group in 2011, mainly to get feedback and encourage her audience to interact with the programme. What she got was something even better than that.

Through Facebook, her audience has contacted her with stories such as the poor state of sanitation in their towns or how housing developers are exploiting tenants and potential housebuyers.

Driving change

Stories like these that that started online have also seen positive action happen offline.

One farmer got in touch with Rita on Facebook to take part in a programme about how the government could help people like him.

And after the programme, he also used Facebook to tell her the long-lasting impact of taking part in the show. Using the information he had learned from the programme, he and his fellow farmers created a cooperative so they could access government funds and succeeded in getting money for a new tractor.

Another listener used Facebook to ask Dateline Abuja to highlight the condition of a cemetery in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja.

It wasn't just overgrown with weeds and choked with rubbish but also a dangerous place to visit Thieves used the cemetery as a hide-out and ritualists dug up graves to remove body parts and even attempted to kidnap people.

After the programme featured the story, the cemetery was cleaned and security improved in the area by Abuja’s Environmental Protection Board.

Social possibilities

So what was the response at the end of the social media training session?

Two female senior journalists from stations in Enugu, south east Nigeria, couldn’t hold back their excitement. "I thought social media is just for boyfriends and girlfriends," they told me.  "I didn’t know that we could use social media for such amazing things as improving our programmes and to generate revenue."
 
Click here to access this BBC Media Action blog and related links on their work in Nigeria.

Image credit: BBC Media Action

Contact:
BBC Media Action
Broadcasting House, Portland Place
London
W1A 1AA
United Kingdom (UK)
Phone: 44 (0) 20 8008 0001
Fax: 44 (0) 20 8008 5970
Media.action@bbc.co.uk