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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ViewChange.org

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Launched in November 2010, ViewChange.org is an initiative combining global development video stories and new technology in an effort to enable individuals and organisations around the world to stimulate change. ViewChange.org brings together evidence-based videos that demonstrate progress in global development. They are being shown both on ViewChange.org and on the Link TV national television network, which reaches 47 million United States (US) homes.
Communication Strategies

This initiative uses the power of video to tell human stories about the real progress being made in reducing poverty and suffering around the world. Working with non-profit organisations, film distributors, and individual filmmakers, ViewChange.org offers documentaries, news reports, and viewer-generated films of varying length and style. The videos on ViewChange.org are freely available for anyone to embed, link to, download, and/or share as they wish. These videos - on-site documentaries, news reports, and viewer-generated films of varying length and style - are searchable through 1,400 topics. Using semantic technology, the site connects the video being watched to other videos, articles, blogs, and social actions.

ViewChange.org seeks to be both interactive and action-oriented. Whether users are practitioners working within global development groups or engaged citizens who care about the developing world, ViewChange.org offers partner groups the ability to contribute content to ViewChange.org. In addition, organisations can embed the videos onto their own websites or encourage their members to send stories to others, using ViewChange's media to stimulate citizen engagement and change.

As part of the ViewChange Online Film Contest, which concluded in 2010, ViewChange.org invited people to upload videos telling stories about the progress being made in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The winning films, amongst the 140 short films received, will be used to raise awareness, inspire action, and accelerate the worldwide movement to reduce extreme poverty by 2015. The videos of winners and finalists will be broadcast on the Link TV national television network (reaching 47 million US homes) and other television channels worldwide, and they will be available for high-quality streaming at ViewChange.org

Development Issues

Agriculture and Food, Development Assistance, Education, Environment, Gender, Governance, Health, Microfinance, Technology, Water and Sanitation.

Key Points

ViewChange.org is a project of Link TV, an independent television broadcaster based in the United States (US) that is devoted to providing diverse global perspectives on news, current events, and world culture. The mission of ViewChange.org, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is to bring together in one place video stories about global development practices and make them highly searchable and sharable for the sector to use for education, awareness, and capacity building.

Partners

ONE, Acumen Fund, Devex, Bread for the World, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Sources

Emails from Wendy Hanamura and Caty Borum Chattoo to The Communication Initiative on March 7 2011; and ViewChange.org, April 7 2011 and December 13 2011.