The Communication Initiative

Development action with informed and engaged societies

Legacy Partners

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:

Network Contact Anonymous (not verified)

Time to read

less than
1 minute

Published 26 years ago

Last updated 1 year ago

Read so far

Non-Smokers Rights Association - Canada

Fri, 07/16/1999 - 00:00

2 comments

This small organisation has seen unprecedented success in taking control of the smoking market in Canada. Through intense advocacy leading to legislation changes and increased prices of tobacco in 1983, a dramatic decline in the number of smokers was apparent.

Communication Strategies

The key aspects of the programme were to reduce accessibility to tobacco products by increasing the taxes on cigarettes and also by changing legislation to create more smoke-free areas, and to remove cigarette vending machines from public areas. Tobacco advertising in Canada has been banned since 1989, and cigarette packages must increase the size of health warnings on packages to one fifth the size of the front and back labels.

Development Issues

Health, smoking, tobacco companies, youth, children

Key Points

This programme resulted in two of five adult smokers kicking the habit, and more impressively, three of five teenagers quitting. Since smoking companies were made to disclose the contents of cigarettes, Marlboro stopped sending cigarettes into Canada rather than risk this list becoming public knowledge. Also, a revolution has taken place in the creation of smoke-free places, with Air Canada being the first airline to ban smoking on all trips.

Partners

Canada's Non-Smokers' Rights Association, Government of Canada, and other NGO's.

Comments

check spelling and content should contain more detail

Editor's note: the spellings we use are British/Canadian spellings (often different from United States/American spellings. Many thanks!

esta pagina no me a aportado nada yo buscaba cosas buenas sobre ser fumador

Log in to post comments