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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.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Long-term effects of improved childhood nutrition: enhancing human potential in Guatemalan adults through improved nutrition in early childhood

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Martorell, R. (1992). "Long-term effects of improved childhood nutrition: enhancing human potential in Guatemalan adults through improved nutrition in early childhood." SCN News(8): 10-12.

OBJECTIVE: Improved nutrition during early childhood has longer-term payoffs than previously documented. Poor nutrition is a powerful constraint to realizing human potential in poor societies. Children who grow up in environments of poverty and malnutrition in developing countries have a diminished capacity for learning and are not able to take advantage of even the limited educational opportunities to which they have access. This paper examines a study carried out to find out whether improved child nutrition leads to enhanced human potential in the adolescent and adult undertaken in four rural villages in Guatemala from 1969-77, and in 1987/88.

FINDINGS: The results indicated that a nutrition intervention to mothers and children results in improved health and nutrition in the vulnerable phase of pregnancy and the first three years of life. The distribution of supplements at a centre for direct consumption was selected because it facilitated verification and measurement of individual consumption. Actual programmes follow very different strategies for improving diets, including approaches other than the direct distribution of foods. The follow-up study established that the contributions of improved nutrition during early childhood to health and nutrition are measurable in the adolescent and adult. Its hypothesis, that such interventions result in improved human capital, are supported by the results so far.