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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Global Corruption Report 2006

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Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report (GCR) 2006 focuses on corruption and its relationship to health. Transparency International defines corruption as ‘the abuse of entrusted power for private gain’. This document states that corruption in the health sector deprives those most in need of essential medical care and helps spawn drug-resistant strains of deadly diseases, and occurs with frequency in part because of the value of medicine in healthcare.

The report's executive summary states that "health sphere corruption encompasses bribery of regulators and medical professionals, manipulation of information on drug trials, the diversion of medicines and supplies, corruption in procurement, and over billing of insurance companies. It is not limited to abuse by public officials, because society frequently entrusts private actors in health care with important public roles. When hospital administrators, insurers, physicians or pharmaceutical company executives dishonestly enrich themselves, they are not formally abusing a public office, but they are abusing entrusted power and stealing precious resources needed to improve health."

The book includes reports drawn from health care and public health professionals and health and public policy researchers worldwide on:
* the risks of corruption in different health care systems * the scale of the problem: from high-level corruption in Costa Rica to counterfeit medicines in Nigeria * health care fraud in the United States * the costs of corruption in hospital administration and the problem of informal payments for health care * the impact of corruption at various points of the pharmaceutical chain * anti-corruption challenges posed by the fight against HIV/AIDS

It also includes:
* a foreword by Mary Robinson * detailed assessments of the state of corruption in 45 countries * recommendations for cleaning up the health sector * examples of successes in preventing health-related bribery, fraud and corruption * the latest corruption-related research, including studies on the links between corruption and other global * issues such as pollution, gender and foreign investment *lessons learned from anti-corruption campaigns around the world
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