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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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Ten Practical Tips for Covering Development

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According to this publication, by definition, development stories are big news in developing countries. The problem is that media reports are typically just government announcements of infrastructure development - roads, bridges, hospitals, etc. - and official claims that lives will improve. Thus, those articles turn off the reading and viewing public, and that has some editors pulling their staff off this important coverage.


Published by International Center for Journalists, the document provides 10 tips from Edem Djokotoe, Knight International Journalism Fellow in Malawi in 2010 and 2011. Djokotoe's advice stresses less jargon and more people, impact, and original reporting. It reminds us that journalists are writing for ordinary people - not development "experts" - to show them the implications of the events unfolding around them.


The 10 tips, which are elaborated, in the document, are:

  • Broaden the development story
  • Humanise the development story
  • Focus on ordinary people, not "big shots"
  • Look for unusual angles
  • Report from the field
  • Use news events to explain issues
  • Avoid technical jargon
  • Use statistics carefully
  • Follow up stories
  • Read widely
Publication Date
Languages

English

Number of Pages

11

Source

International Center for Journalists website on January 23 2013.