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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Impact Data - Straight Talk / Parent Talk Campaign - Impact on Parents

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Straight Talk is an adolescent sexuality and reproductive health (ASRH) programme, started in 1995 by the Kenya Association of Professional Counsellors as an information, education and communication programme that produces behaviour change communication (BCC) materials for adolescents and important adults in their lives, such as teachers and parents. The central STF materials being assessed in the study from which the below data were excerpted are: a) Parent Talk newspaper (3 issues of which had been published at the time of data collection); b) Straight Talk radio programmes (e.g., a multilingual programme for adolescents and a half-hour parent-centred weekly programme, which airs in 6 languages); and c) Straight Talk and Youth Talk newspapers. In order to assess the dose-response association between exposure to STF materials and the study outcomes, parents were classified into 4 groups: a) those not exposed to any item, b) those exposed to 1 item, c) those exposed to 2 items and d) those exposed to all 3 items. For the purpose of this study, districts receiving just the English newspapers and radio show are characterised as "low intensity", whereas those receiving the English-language papers and radio shows as well as the local language newspaper and radio show are characterised as "high intensity".

Methodologies
A total of 678 mothers and fathers with children between the ages of 10 and 19 years of age were interviewed in 6 districts in Uganda through a household survey. In 4 of those districts, STF has more intensive activities and are therefore termed "high intensity districts". Following training over a 4-day period, interviewers fluent in the local language administered a face-to-face questionnaire (which had been translated into 6 languages). The questionnaires were pre-tested and revised twice before data collection, which began on August 29 2005 and ended on September 7 2005.
Knowledge Shifts
Six true/false questions were included in a questionnaire to document the level of knowledge about HIV and AIDS among parents. There was a correlation between exposure to STF materials and the knowledge score: respondents in high STF intensity districts had a mean knowledge score of 4.4, compared to those in the low intensity district with a mean score of 3.8 (p = 0.000). There was also a relationship between the number of items a respondent had been exposed to and the mean score: those exposed to 0 items had a mean score of 3.7, those exposed to 1 item had a mean score of 4.5, those exposed to 2 items had a score of mean 4.5, and those exposed to 3 items had a mean score of 4.3 (p = 0.000).
Practices
Parents were asked whether they had been tested for HIV; 19% said they had. Those in high-intensity districts were more likely than those in low-intensity districts to have been tested (23% versus 11%; p = 0.000). There was also a strong association between HIV testing and the number of STF materials one had been exposed to: 10% of those exposed to 0 items had been tested, compared to 18% of those exposed to 1 item, 27% of those exposed to 2 items, and 33% of those exposed to 3 items (p = 0.000).
Increased Discussion of Development Issues
Overall, there was a direct correlation between parental exposure to STF materials (residing in a high-intensity district) and the parent having talked with the child: 56% of those in high-intensity districts had had such a talk, compared to 40% of those in low-intensity districts.

About 62% of parents who had read Parent Talk (52 parents) said that they took some type of action as a result of reading Parent Talk. The most common action was to talk to other parents/friends (39%), talk with their child/children's friends (17%), recommend the magazine to someone (17%), or talk with spouse (13%).

The 55% (n=367) of parents who listened to Straight Talk radio were asked whether they had ever taken any action as a result of the exposure, and 62% said they had. For most (90%), the action comprised talking to their children.
Access
60% of parents surveyed had been exposed to STF materials (mostly to local language STF radio shows).
Source
Straight Talk Campaign in Uganda: Parent Survey [PDF], by Karusa Kiragu, Cathy Watson, Medard Muhwezi, Ann Akia-Fiedler, Richard Kibombo, Tobey Nelson, and Milka Juma. Published September 2007.
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