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. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Routine Immunisation Performance in the Africa Region

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Presented at: The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Meeting on Communication for Polio Eradication in Zimbabwe

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Summary

This PowerPoint presentation was part of a November 2006 meeting hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office (AFRO) in Zimbabwe. At this meeting, country-specific presentations were made by communication practitioners in 5 countries which have experienced ongoing cases of wild polio virus (WPV) from 2005 to 2006. The objectives of the meeting included the following:

  1. To critically review country communication strategies and activities for polio eradication, routine immunisation and integrated expanded programme of immunisation (EPI)-polio action including progress in implementing the Yaounde 2005 TAG country recommendations.
  2. To develop the technical recommendations for each country which, when implemented, would improve polio and routine communication performance.
  3. To develop and propose communication indicators that can be effective in measuring the impact of communication strategies for improved polio eradication and expanded routine immunisation.


This presentation gives an overview of the WHO/AFRO routine immunisation (RI) priorities for 2006. It also reviews main achievements with regards to third dose diptheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine (DPT3) coverage in the African region between 2005-2006, as well as upcoming challenges to immunisation performance.

The main priorities for 2006 as outlined in this presentation include:

  • Focusing on the “Big Four” (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, and Nigeria) and other priority countries
  • Assisting countries with making informed decisions on opportunities provided by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI)
  • Providing support to countries to improve the quality of data, as well as develop/update their comprehensive multi-year planning (cMYP)

District performance for DPT3 coverage in 2006 was listed by the presenters for four African regions (Western, Southern, Eastern and Central). The Southern region displayed the highest proportion, having achieved >80% DPT3 coverage in 68% of its districts, while the Central region remains low at 37% of districts. With the exception of the Central region, all regions have achieved at least 50% DPT3 coverage in 90% or more of their districts.

A series of slides in this presentation illustrated the 2005-2006 performance statistics for DPT3 coverage for the Big Four countries, as well as a number of countries in each of the target regions listed above.

Globally, the future challenge for DPT3 coverage consists of 28.2 million unreached infants. WHO/AFRO has identified 8.71 million infants in sub-Saharan Africa that are an important part of this demographic, and represent an area for future focus.

Click here to download the full PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.