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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Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS & Mitigating its Impact through the Involvement of Youth in HIV/AIDS

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The Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS project aims to reduce the spread and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS among young South Africans by encouraging them to participate in the design and implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes for HIV/AIDS prevention. Officially endorsed by the government in March 2003, the project focuses on empowering young people to adopt responsible and healthy behaviours.

This project is part of the Southern African Youth (SAY) Initiative. SAY is a sub-regional HIV and AIDS initiative through which the United Nations Foundation (UNF), the United Nations Fund for International Partnership (UNFIP), and UNAIDS seek to support and scale up HIV/AIDS interventions among young people in southern Africa. South African project objectives include:
  • strengthening community home-based careinitiatives using young people as caregivers
  • mainstreaming HIV/AIDS care and support,life skills, and sexual reproductive health into existing youth programmes
  • facilitating partnerships and mobilising the community around care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS
  • training HIV-positive youth to enhance theirpotential for employment
  • involving youth, in and out of school, in the development of effective life-skills programmes for HIV prevention.
Main Communication Strategies
At the heart of this programme is a deliberate effort to involve youth directly in the fight against the epidemic. The programme seeks to involve young people as agents of change who assess, analyse, and propose appropriateactions to address the vulnerability of youth to HIV/AIDS. The project also involves parents, teachers and caregivers, faith-based leaders, and other key stakeholders in society in an effort to encourage behaviour change. This strategy is based on the premise that families and communities are profoundly affected by HIV/AIDS.

Project activities include:
  • Participation by youth, both in and out of school, in a social audit designed to elicit youth views, attitudes, and knowledge on sexuality, HIV risk, and sexual violence. A key aim here is getting young people involved in planning effective life-skills programmes.
  • Equipping HIV-positive youth with personal and professional skills - such as psychosocial care training - to enable them to better manage their status, to be positive role models, and to enhance their potential for employment.
  • Youth models that apply the Greater Involvement of People with AIDS (GIPA) principle
  • Community mobilisation and advocacy.
Development Issues
HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Youth.
Key Points
Organisers explain that "For young people to adopt responsible and healthy behaviours, the root causes of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS must be addressed. Some of these are: the lack of economic opportunities (unemployment); lack of recreational activities; substance abuse; misconceptions and myths around sexuality; sexual roles, sexual inequalities and related sexual violence; and stigma."

SAY comprises 9 independent projects located in 8 of southern Africa's most severely affected countries, as well as a sub-regional technical support project (Telling the Story). Through the work of UN country teams, SAY aims to catalyse innovative and expanded national responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to meet the needs of youth in southern Africa, especially girls, who are most vulnerable to HIV infection.
Partners

UNF/UNAIDS

Sources

Southern African Youth Initiative on AIDS: Responding to HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa [PDF].