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

Maternal and Child Survival Program Polio Communication Program Summary [Overview]

0 comments
Affiliation

The Communication Initiative

Date
Summary

Overview

This award builds on prior polio-focused work through the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program and IMMUNIZATIONbasics, and on the communication technical expertise, knowledge management capacities, and reach of The Communication Initiative (The CI).

Since 2014, the Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) has actively supported the global effort to eradicate poliomyelitis by providing state-of-the-art expertise, research, and knowledge dissemination in communication. MCSP's objectives have been structured around the following areas:

  • Providing expert technical advice on polio communication to endemic countries
  • Supporting peer-reviewed research to increase representation of practitioners in journal literature
  • Conducting original research into under-researched areas
  • Providing direct support to outbreak countries, such as Madagascar, Lao PDR, and Ukraine
  • Creating spaces for US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded and other agencies working on polio to capture lessons for dissemination
  • Encouraging expert opinion dissemination and discussion through editorials and blogs
  • Building a Web-based network of over 13,000 people engaged in communication for polio and immunization, supported by a knowledge management platform with over 2,000 polio and immunization knowledge summaries disseminated through newsletters with large subscriber bases

Figure 1. Global eradication





Editor's note: Above is the beginning excerpt from "Maternal and Child Survival Program Polio Communication Program Summary". You can navigate between sections of the full paper by clicking on the links in the list of Contents, below.

The next section in this paper is Key Accomplishments in Brief.

Contents:

Abbreviations

  • GPEI: Global Polio Eradication Initiative
  • MCSP: Maternal and Child Survival Program
  • NPHCDA: National Primary Health Care Development Agency
  • OBRA: outbreak response assessment
  • RI: routine immunization
  • SBCC: social and behavior change communication
  • TAG: technical advisory group
  • The CI: The Communication Initiative
  • USAID: US Agency for International Development
  • WHO: World Health Organization

Overview
Key Accomplishments in Brief
Expert Technical Advice
Research
Knowledge Dissemination
Summary
Recommendations
Appendix 1. Statistics and targets table

The Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) is a global, $560 million, 5-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to introduce and support scale-up of high-impact health interventions among USAID's 25 maternal and child health priority countries,* as well as other countries. MCSP is focused on ensuring that all women, newborns and children most in need have equitable access to quality health care services to save lives. MCSP supports programming in maternal, newborn and child health, immunization, family planning and reproductive health, nutrition, health systems strengthening, water/sanitation/hygiene, malaria, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and pediatric HIV care and treatment.

* USAID's 25 high-priority countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia

This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through USAID under the terms of the Cooperative Agreement AID-OAA-A-14-00028. The contents are the responsibility of MCSP and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Source

Image credit: Chris Morry