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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Strategies for Advancing Girls' Education (SAGE)

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Launched in 1999 by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), the 3-year Strategies for Advancing Girls' Education (SAGE) project was designed to strengthen local ownership of girls’ education by engaging traditional and non-traditional actors - such as the public and private sectors, central and decentralised government units, religious and business leaders, the media and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - in implementing local solutions with local resources in support of girls’ education. Another goal was to provide technical and training assistance in girls’ primary education to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Missions. SAGE interventions were implemented in Guinea, Mali, and Ghana, as well as in El Salvador and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Communication Strategies

A key SAGE strategy was conducting research on educational quality and best practices for girls’ education with the aim of advancing technical knowledge around topics in girls' education - to the end of fostering implementation of related policies, strategies, and programmes. This research was then communicated through two key means. First, SAGE organised workshops that brought together policy makers, practitioners, advocates and scholars to share knowledge and disseminate strategies for advancing girls’ education. Second, SAGE developed a website to share the details about these workshops, as well as to enable download of the publications to emerge from the research process.

This website also provides information about each individual participating country's activities, which shared the goal of moving from dialogue on girls’ education to the implementation of locally-derived solutions that engage the support of all sectors of society. In general, and in brief, SAGE activities included:

  • mobilising leaders from the business and religious sectors to become advocates of girls’ education
  • designing/facilitating workshops for local radio station personnel and other public communicators to highlight the value of girls’ education
  • designing girls’ mentoring and life skills programmes
  • working closely with communities to surface locally initiated and funded solutions to resolve persistent girls’ education constraints
  • implementing curriculum revisions to include life skills for girls
  • arranging national conferences for consensus-building for girls’ education
  • facilitating the initiation of national funds in support of girls’ education
  • training teachers in girl-friendly classroom practices
  • organising training that fosters replicability of innovative programmes
  • setting up monitoring systems to measure intermediate results and indicators of impact.

Development Issues

Education, Girls.

Partners

Academy for Educational Development (AED), United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Sources

SAGE website.