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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Urban Youth Project

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Urban Youth Project (UYP) is a sexual and reproductive health campaign targeting unemployed youth, commercial sex workers, orphans and street children in Southern African countries. The project is part of Telling the Story a sub-regional technical support project of Southern African Youth (SAY) Initiative to improve HIV/AIDS awareness among youth in the region. It focuses on young people aged between 12 and 26.
Communication Strategies
UYP encourages young people to set goals and take control of their lives through income-generation projects, peer-education training and the promotion of youth-friendly health clinics. Local groups for sports, music, theatre and traditional dances are involved in the project. The project is driven by young people, each township has a taskforce, responsible for setting the project's agenda, along with the health ministry, non-governmental organisations, community groups and the United Nations.

The UYP project aims to educate out-of-school youth about adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH). “Participants mostly come from poor and dysfunctional families.”
Development Issues
Youth, Health.
Key Points
The project objectives include:
  • building connections with local community organisations, especially those working with inner city youth and communities of colour;
  • creating a forum for all young people to give voice to their personal viewpoints and concerns through monthly open mic events.
  • working with a group of young fathers on various community issues, and developing/implementing workshops on these issues.
Partners

United Nations Foundation (UNF), United Nations Fund for International Partnership (UNFIP), UNAIDS.

Sources

AIDS Education Global Information System website on April 22 2005.