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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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PRODERITH I, Rural Communication System - Mexico

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The Programme of Integrated Rural Development in the Tropical Wetlands ( PRODERITH) was, in this first stage, an integrated development programme which fostered participation of community members in the process of identifying and analysing problems within their communities, planning and implementing actions to resolve them, and monitoring and evaluating results. This pilot programme ran from 1978 through 1984, was centralized within three distinct communities, and worked in depth with 3,500 peasant families.
Communication Strategies

PRODERITH I was committed to promoting community members as protagonists in their own development, with appropriate assistance and support from outside. All aspects of training, discussions within the communities, and evaluations of the programme itself were supported through video recording and playback and overseen by specialist Field Units. The programme was democratic in nature, but centralized in actual process.
Development Issues

Increasing agricultural production and productivity in the tropics through technical assistance, improving the living and working conditions of peasants (including basic arithmetic, purification of drinking water, food and nutrition, children's diseases, the social and political role of women), and conserving natural resources.
Key Points

Utilised video recording and playback to stimulate and deepen debate within a community about its past, present, and possible future. Ultimately, PRODERITH I Field Units generated an Internal Development Project with each community, detailing a consensus that actions should and could be taken to improve the situation within the community. Also formed "pedagogical packages" consisting of a series of 10-15min. educational videos with supporting printed materials to be discussed with PRODERITH I advisors and then taken home for peer discussion.
Partners



Secretariat for Agriculture and Water Resources; Mexico, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Sources

Fraser, Colin & Sonia Restrepo-Estrada (1998) Communicating for Development: Human Change for Survival, London, I.B. Tauris