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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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Information and Knowledge for Optimal Health project (INFO) - Global

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In 2002, a team consisting of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (CCP), The Guttmacher Institute, and Analytical Sciences Inc. (ASI) announced its plans to embark on a five-year global reproductive health information programme. The Information and Knowledge for Optimal Health project, or INFO [no longer available], will work to create a network for knowledge-sharing by collecting, synthesising, and disseminating information on family planning and reproductive health. Capacity-building is also a component of the programme. INFO will use a variety of technologies to support its goal of enabling health professionals and policymakers around the world to communicate with each other and to contribute to the development of a comprehensive base of knowledge. Funding is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Communication Strategies

Key tools associated with this project include the quarterly review journal Population Reports, The Essentials of Contraceptive Technology handbook, the POPLINE bibliographic database, the collaborative website Reproductive Health Gateway [no longer available] , and the Photoshare collection of photographs on international health topics. The INFO website [no longer available] is designed to enhance this effort to provide and exchange information on reproductive health. One page on the site provides links to various databases and list servers; a list of topics offers individual links to various sources of information on specific dimensions of reproductive health.

In addition, The Guttmacher Institute will continue to publish its peer-reviewed journal International Family Planning Perspectives and will work with CCP to enhance the ability of researchers to communicate their findings more effectively to policymakers and others. ASI will use new technologies to help build platforms for communicating health information.

These tools will be used to support INFO's efforts to collect and disseminate best practices related to reproductive health. That is, INFO will work with worldwide health professionals' organisations, health information organisations in developing countries, other USAID-support organisations, and USAID country missions to help build capabilities to generate and share information. INFO will also strengthen networks within and among local organisations and in communities of practice.

Development Issues

Reproductive Health, Family Planning, Information and Knowledge Development, Technology.

Key Points

INFO will piggyback on the CCP-managed, USAID-funded Population Information Project (PIP), which was initiated in 1978. INFO's strategies, as delineated above, rely heavily on tools created by PIP.

Partners

CCP, The Guttmacher Institute, and ASI. Funder: USAID.

Sources

Press release forwarded to The Communication Initiative on October 11, 2002; letter sent from Kim Martin of JHUCCP to The Communication Initiative on October 15, 2002; and INFO website [no longer available].