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

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Pulsar - Latin America

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Pulsar began in March 1996 to provide independent and community radio stations in Latin America with local news stories, public service advertisements (PSAs), and other information useful to civil society.
Communication Strategies
Pulsar began by producing a daily bulletin of 12 to 15 stories, 5 days a week. At the end of 1996, they added a monthly Comunicado and in 1997 & 98 created: En Linea, news stories edited and distributed on-line throughout the day (M-F); Compendio, sent at the end of the day - a collection of the news stories produced during the day; Ciberbrujas, produced in collaboration with the Bolivian NGO REDADA, a weekly service featuring news and information about Latin American Women; Nuqanchik, a daily news service in Quechua, a tongue spoken by 8 million people and the main native language in the Andean region; and Audio, a daily service of audio clips of 15-60 seconds in length.
Development Issues
Political Development, Rights.
Key Points
From 38 subscribers, Pulsar grew to more than 1,000 subscribers in 2 years, Most are radio stations, but some are NGOs and individuals that use the information for different purposes - news, teaching, political analysis, etc. All services are provided free of charge. From the beginning, Pulsar has sought to: improve the programming, establish the credibility and increase the impact of independent and community radio in Latin America; contribute towards modernising the technology of independent and community radio stations; ensure better information and knowledge of regional and global issues, and promote topics related to democratic development, regional integration, peace and human rights and the right to communicate; and promote pluralism and participation at the local, national and regional levels, giving priority to those sectors that are often excluded.
Partners

Agencia Informativa Pulsar/AMARC.

Sources

"Strengthening Community Radio With E-Communications" by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron.