Media
Media development action with informed and engaged societies
Media

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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Partnering for the Child

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Partnering for the Child is a project that shows the involvement of the mass media in ensuring that children missed during a national polio immunisation drive are immunised. The initiative, organised by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), reinforced the importance of the mass media as a key partner in promoting immunisation and creating demand for immunisation throughout the country. The television station offered free airtime to display a list of telephone numbers on television so that parents and concerned citizens could call to alert the health authorities of children that were missed during national polio immunisation days.
Communication Strategies

As soon as a call is received regarding a child or area that had been missed by the polio immunization drive, the World Health Organization (WHO) office in the region organised for a response team is sent out to vaccinate the child and any other children missed in the area.

The concept of a phone line is seen as successful as parents or concerned citizens are given an opportunity to call anonymously and the anonymity also gives parents the courage to demand the right of their children to be immunised. The high number of parents, who had rung the numbers displayed on television, were seen as an indicator of the level of concern for ensuring children are protected from polio. Given the high volume of calls, the State Team extended the campaigns by an extra day. One of the people responding to calls was the former Commissioner for Health, Dr. Kola Olaosebikan.

Key Points

NTA hopes to sustain the initiative by collaborating with the State to extend the arrangement to air numbers of key contacts so members of the public could call to report on service delivery at routine immunisation clinics, as well as report cases of acute flaccid paralysis in their communities.

Partners

NTA, USAID, WHO.