The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative

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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Children as Consumers of Commercial and Social Products

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  • James U. McNeal, Ph. D.
This is a working paper from the conference "Marketing Health to Kids 8 to 12 Years of Age," that was held October 21 & 22, 1998.

"Adolscent Health promotion programmes routinely incorporate health communication as a key strategy to promote health. To this end, PAHO's Division of Health Promotion and Protection, in collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), commissioned Dr. James U. McNeal, a recognised authority on marketing commercial products to kids, to prepare [this document]. [It] was used by the two agencies during a meeting held in October 1998 - sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. During this meeting expert health communicators from the Americas worked to develop health communication strategies targeting kids 8 to 12 years of age.

Dr. McNeal's work underlines the growing interest in developing health communication programmes for kids 8 to 12 years of age because of the increasing evidence that young people are adopting risk-taking behaviours at earlier ages. Children in this age group are smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, taking drugs and having sex; are making decisions that will affect all aspects of thier own future as well as the future of their family and community, and are very involved and attracted to a broad spectrum of communication media. In fact, some literature suggests that the media may have a greater influence socialising children than do parents or the church."

Click here to download the English version as a PDF file.

Click here to download the Spanish version as a PDF file.

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