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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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"Come, Let’s Talk" - India

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This campaign is an intensive interpersonal and mass media effort designed to destigmatise and mainstream discussion on family planning in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The theme of the campaign, "Come, Let's Talk" uses the traditional symbols of the parrot and the mynah birds drawn from ancient storytelling forms in India.
Communication Strategies

Strategy includes: training of service providers, traditional media groups and mass media, monitoring and evaluation. It is based on some of the key tenets of the Programme of Action from the Cairo ICPD Conference: free and informed choice, a Target-Free Approach and an emphasis on spacing methods of birth control among younger couples with a low parity. Activities and materials include: Interpersonal Communication (IPC) materials (calenda, posters, stickers, bag, desk calendar, mailer-cum-wall-chart), IPC training and orientation of field staff, folk media (the nautanki, the quawali, puppetry and allaha/bifha), Mass media campaign (radio and TV), tracking and evaluation. Target audience is couples from 17-25 years old currently not using contraceptives.
Development Issues

Family planning, population.
Key Points

Uttar Pradesh in north India is the most populous state in India. In terms of population, the state is larger than all but six countries in the world. Uttar Pradesh is a tradition-bound state, with some of the poorest socio-economic indicators in the country. The campaign is probably the first comprehensive and scientifically designed communication intervention in family planning in India.
Partners



A project of the State Innovations in Family Planning Services (SIFPSA) project supported by USAID with technical assistance from the Johns Hopkins University/ Population Communications Services.

Sources

Paper submitted to The Communication Initiative by Nirupama Sarma.