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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Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM)

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Established in 1928, CIM (Spanish acronym for Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres) seeks the full recognition of the civil, political, economical, social and cultural rights of women. The first inter-governmental agency created to ensure women´s rights, the Commission consists of 34 Principal Delegates, representing each one of the member States of the OAS (Organization of American States) and usually the highest-level authority responsible for gender equality and women's rights issues. It has become the most important forum in the Americas to debate and develop policies about women´s rights and gender equality. The central guideline for CIM's work is the Inter-American Program for the Promotion of Women's Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality (IAP). The organisation focuses on 5 programmatic areas:
  • Women's substantive political citizenship for democracy and good governance
  • Women's economic security and citizenship
  • Women's human rights and violence against women
  • Multidimensional security from a rights-based and gender equality perpective
  • Institutionalisation (mainstreaming) of the rights´ based and gender equality perspective within the OAS and the Member States.
In 2011 CIM developed a new Strategic Plan [2011-2016] to guide the promotion of women's rights and gender equality in five main areas: Democracy, Human Rights, Development, Security, and the OAS's work.
Communication Strategies

One of CIMs priorities is programming joint activities for research, advocacy and mobilisation, capacity strengthening, dialogue, and policy formulation. This work is developed with the different Secretariats and Departments in the OAS, as well as with regional and international organisations that work on these issues. This multi-partner approach strengthens the comparative advantage of CIM – given its position and role as a political forum – with the work implemented by other key partners. The Strategy defined for the implementation of the Strategic Plan 2011-2016 is based on the lessons learned during the execution of the IAP during the last decade, as well as in recent programming experiences.

The Plan prioritises the following:

  • The institutional repositioning of CIM, as the central political forum for women's human rights and gender equality;
  • The articulation and coordination of CIM's work with the priorities and actions of the OAS' Secretariats and other organisms in the most substantive areas, to advance the full exercise of women's human rights;
  • The mainstreaming and institutional inclusion, within the OAS work and its counterparts, of a rights based and gender equality perspective as a vehicle and a tool, and not as an end in itself;
  • Promoting and supporting dialogue and cooperation amongst the member countries;
  • Creating synergies to seek innovative alternatives and solutions to gender based inequalities and to mobilise women's human rights. The focus is on the main thematic areas and in building bridges between key sectors, such as governments (local, regional and national), public and private sector, academia, and civil society;
  • Participatory knowledge management to ensure women´s rights and gender equality. This area includes: a) the development of studies and evaluations that provide and identify the field's state of the art practice; b) the identification, analysis and sharing of successful initiatives, best practice and lessons learned; c) awards to innovative approaches, both inside and outside the OAS system, and d) the continuous analysis of the challenges and future perspectives in all the thematic areas included in the plan;
  • Monitoring and periodic evaluation of the Strategic Plan's implementation.
Development Issues

Gender equality, rights, women

Key Points

One of the initiatives promoted by CIM is the HIV and Violence against Women in Central America Project, implemented between 2009 and 2011, with the overall objective to contribute and improve the institutional capacity and integral response to to human rights, HIV and violence against women in Central America. This is done through the implementation of rights- based policies and integral programmes in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panamá.
 
This project addresses the growing feminisation of HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, which has become a disease of young, poor women, many of whom are monogamous. One of the main factors associated with the feminisation of HIV is violence against women (VAW), which also constitutes a problem of grave proportions in the Hemisphere.

Sources

CIM website.