Media development action with informed and engaged societies

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

Time to read
1 minute
Read so far

Voices III: Malaria Powerbrokers

0 comments

Launched in November 2011, Malaria Powerbrokers is a two-year malaria advocacy initiative to expand the national movements of private and public sector leaders in four African countries (Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda), to collectively motivate African governments to use available resources (domestic, donor, and private sector) more efficiently to scale up effective malaria control, laying the foundation for eventual elimination. Led by Johns Hopkins University Centre for Communication Programs, and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the initiative builds on Voices for a Malaria-free Future, a project led by JHUCCP from 2006 to 2011, and the United Against Malaria (UAM) campaign, which uses soccer as the catalyst to raise global awareness and galvanise worldwide commitment to end malaria deaths by 2015.

Communication Strategies

Malaria Powerbroker's activities include:

  • cultivating strong champions among UAM private sector partners;
  • building advocacy skills among UAM partners and collecting data on malaria control's return on investment;
  • inspiring partners to become malaria advocates;
  • developing advocacy opportunities such as UAM football events to motivate government leaders to use donor resources more efficiently.
Development Issues

Malaria

Key Points

Voices III: Malaria Powerbrokers is the third iteration of the advocacy project, Voices for a Malaria-Free Future, which cites the following as examples of accomplishments:

  • United Against Malaria, led in Africa by Voices Against Malaria, works to build support for universal access to mosquito nets and malaria medicine in Africa (a critical first step toward eliminating malaria deaths by 2015) using people's passion for football as a catalyst. Voices brought UAM to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the CECAFA Tusker Challenge Cup in Tanzania, and the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, as well as many regional and club tournaments throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Voices developed the Malaria Safe initiative built on four pillars — education, protection, visibility, and advocacy — in response to the desire of African-based companies to protect their employees and communities from malaria and document the impact. Since the programme launched in 2010, about 35 companies have distributed nets to employees, updated their diagnosis and treatment protocols, and joined forces with Malaria Safe partners to increase public awareness about malaria.
  • Parliamentary Forums on Malaria: National assemblies in Africa play an important role in controlling the policies, programmes, and financing for health. Beginning in 2010, Voices has partnered with donors, multilaterals, and civil society organisations to build national and multi-national parliamentary networks to target obstacles to malaria control in a collaborative way. The first such parliamentary forum took place in Mali with seventy-six parliamentarians from 18 countries in West and Central Africa.
Partners

Johns Hopkins University Centre for Communication Programs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United Against Malaria (UAM)

Sources

JHUCCP website on April 30 2012.