The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
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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Development Dilemmas

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This Panos Radio South Asia (PRSA) programme brings together multiple voices twice a month on a single theme in an effort to draw the attention of policymakers as well as ordinary citizens to the nuances that characterise our development models. The half-an-hour-long radio discussion aims to capture the voices of economically poor and marginalised people in South Asia on issues including Panos South Asia's 5 thematic areas: media pluralism, public health, conflict, environment, and globalisation.
Communication Strategies

Development Dilemmas uses information and communication technology (ICT) to create "a seminar room, a meeting place, a debating site, and an incubator of new ideas, methods, and systems to facilitate free flow of knowledge from the portals of academia and experts to ordinary citizens and vice versa." The idea is that radio programmes - made accessible to all through online listening options - can facilitate a multi-directional information flow when complemented by the interactivity facilitated by online features such as a discussion forum. The goal is to create inclusive policy paradigms by sparking debate, in recognition of the conviction that there are multiple perspectives that need to be considered in any policy decision.

 

For example, in a September 2008 edition of Development Dilemmas, PRSA travels to Rawalakot, a tourist city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, to look at the performance, challenges, and possibilities for FM radio stations in Pakistan. Five years after licenses were first issued to the private sector to broadcast on airwaves once reserved for state-owned Radio Pakistan, this programme explores how the local media scenario offers wider public space through more radio stations. Several panelists participate in a moderated discussion.

Development Issues

Democracy and Governance.

Sources

PRSA website; and email from Satish Jung Shahi to The Communication Initiative on January 2 2009.