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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The Drum Beat 212 - The Communication Initiative

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212
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This issue of The Drum Beat is our regular annual update. One of the main goals of The CI is to expand dialogue, debate and review of key communication issues and programmes. The foundation of this is interactivity - to help you reach the people and information you seek to make the improvements you want in your work.

WHO DOES THE CI WORK WITH?

The network of people and organisations accessing The CI, receiving our newsletters and announcements (The Drum Beat, Son de Tambora, DB Classifieds, Clasificados, and various DB Clicks), sharing information, and interacting through our various online processes grows every day. There are over 34,000 people/organisations requesting The Drum Beat and the Son de Tambora. One normal weekday on the site will see 5,000 individual visitor sessions from 2,200 unique hosts making 105,000 page views from 85 different countries.

The CI seeks to mobilise the capacities of the new technologies to support your work, relevant to your contexts. This includes access to descriptions of programmes run by your peers worldwide; summaries of research and evaluation results; outlines of strategic thinking, change theories and planning methodologies; summaries of training and conference opportunities; access to peers in other programmes for supportive commentary and review; summaries of relevant information derived from the field. We believe the ability to access this information in real time, engage peers for support and reflect on strategic thinking for more effective work directly improves programme performance.

The Communication Initiative Impact - an evaluation of The CI, completed in Oct 2002, elicited the following insights in relation to its impact:

  • 86% used CI to improve their work; 49% had initiated an exchange and dialogue with peers prompted by a CI 'item'
  • 88% of that group regarded the exchange as positive for their work;
  • 61% of the overall sample rated The CI as a 7 or better on a 10 point scale with 1 being 'of no value' and 10 being 'extremely valuable'
  • with 84% rating The CI a 5 or better on that scale.


REGIONAL & GLOBAL VOICES FOCUSED ON ISSUES

1. SEPTEMBER 10, 2003 will launch Soul Beat Africa - a space for communicators across Africa to share experiences, materials, strategic thinking and events, and to engage in discussion and debate. This site will provide an opportunity for sharing and debating the unique experiences and issues of the continent, while helping strengthen communication for social change and development. The project is a collaboration between Soul City and The CI.

Send your experiences - contact Soul Beat soulbeat@comminit.com - and visit the site on September 10 to read more about the work of your colleagues.

Soul Beat Africa September 10, 2003 ...African choices...critical voices....crossing borders....African Stories...

The Soul Beat, the Africa-specific e-publication on communication for development and change news and issues, will be published every other Wednesday, beginning Sept 10. Join over 4,000 communicators for change in Africa. Subscribe to The Soul Beat by visiting Soul Beat Africa beginning September 10.

2. La Iniciativa de Comunicación - the Latin American CI (in Spanish) has expanded its platform and scope extensively this past year. Additional sections of the website include:

  • Evaluación (Evaluation)
  • Dicen los Medios (What the Media Say)
  • Pioneros (Gallery of Pioneers)
  • Financiación (Funding Opportunities)
  • Tomando el Pulso (The Pulse Poll)

They have published 55 Son de Tamboras in total and the Son de Tambora subscriber network has more than doubled. And there are now 6 "Windows" into La Iniciativa de Comunicación - Educación (Education), Juventud (Youth), Radio, Salud (Health), Televisión, VIH/SIDA (HIV/AIDS). Contact Juana Marulanda jmarulanda@comminit.com

3. This past year The CI has launched 6 NEW WINDOWS - these organise all information on The CI site focused on a particular issue. Each item is sorted by date - so you will see the MOST CURRENT information, or the information most recently UPDATED on the site based on these NEW themes:

  • Environment
  • Children
  • Girls
  • Integrated Early Childhood Development
  • Child Protection
  • Adolescents
  • In addition to others previously launched - South Asia, Radio, Health, HIV/AIDS, Immunisations & Vaccines - see The Communication Initiative.

Contact Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

DISCUSSION, DEBATE, AND OPINION

4. If you read Spanish and work in or are interested in Journalism or Health in Latin America, check out RED SALUD - La Iniciativa de Comunicación's electronic network of professional journalists aiming to discuss, reflect and contribute ideas in order to improve the quality of the journalism in health in Latin America.

5. If you work in or are interested in HIV/AIDS Communication, check out "Twinning Against AIDS" - part of a project to explore how Information & Communication Technologies can be used to strengthen and further develop the capacity of organisations responding to the global AIDS crisis to share their experiences, learn from each other, and develop more effective tools in their work. The CI partnered with the Interagency Coalition on AIDS & Development to launch a pilot web site and process in spring 2003. This project will continue with further development of internet based tools and networks to facilitate twinning partnerships among AIDS service organisations in developed and developing countries. Contact Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com

6. "Health e Communication" is a pilot on-line resource for Health Communication practitioners designed to grow and evolve as programme experiences, lessons, planning models, research and evaluation documents, lectures and addresses, and historical milestones in health communication are submitted and rated. It is an open process that asks people to: submit the resources they find most useful; assess the resources others have submitted; discuss what really works in the field; reassess the resources based on discussion; and generate an evolving collective perspective on the most useful resources in health communication. The CI partnered with the Health Communication Partnership (HCP) to develop this pilot resource. Plans are in the works for further development and a public launch. Contact cmorry@comminit.com

7. Through a process of "Page Reviews", we hope to build a collective critical analysis of the information on The CI site from the perspectives of people across the communication and development field. We have received over 7,947 reviews of various pages since commencing in late 2002. To review a page, click on the link "Review this page" at the top of the middle column of almost every page of the site, or, scroll to the bottom of the site and rate and comment on the page there. To read comments and reviews that others have submitted, click on the link "Read Reviews" at the top of the middle column of almost every page of the site. Please note - only the comments are viewable. There may have been several ratings submitted without comments. Please participate!

8. This past year, we facilitated and supported 4 online surveys -

  • The Twinning Against AIDS Survey, "Responding to HIV/AIDS through International Partnership & Twinning" [Now Closed]
  • The Panos Institute's HIV Communication Questionnaire [Now Closed]
  • World Learning's Funding Media & Development Initiatives Survey [Now Closed]
  • The Communication Initiative Evaluation [Now Closed]

We will continue to initiate, assist and support online research as it examines communication for development and social change. Contact wfeek@comminit.com

9. You have responded to 8 Pulse Polls so far in 2003 - These polls are not scientific. Instead, they are a way of informally seeking your ideas and opinions on issues and potential trends. We find that the comments generated are often intriguing, unexpected, and from varying perspectives. Although the poll statement itself may be of more or less interest to various people in communication fields - the results are only as interesting as the people who participate and share their comments make them. Please participate!

10. In our quest to expand dialogue on communication issues and programmes, we have facilitated 4 specific online discussions in the past year, focused on the following papers/publications:

  • NEW - Sept 10 - "Communication & Natural Resource Management: Experience/Theory", published by the FAO and prepared by The Communication Initiative.
  • "Developments on the use of mass media at the national level for HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa."
  • "Critical Challenges in HIV Communication" to inform the Policy Report on HIV Communication to be published by The Panos Institute.
  • "Communication for Social Change: An Integrated Model for Measuring the Process and It's Outcomes", published by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Contact wfeek@comminit.com

ANALYSIS AND THINKING

11. In an effort to assist and improve strategic communication thinking on development issues, we have 2 sections of our site that focus on strategic analysis of communication issues, projects, methods and styles.

  • Strategic Thinking - includes over 500 summaries and full text articles, reports, speeches and presentations, and a few commentaries. These are organised by development issue.
  • Social Change - this section identifies articles, presentations, models and publications that specifically address theories of social change. It includes some of the same material that is in our Strategic Thinking section.

Please contribute - contact dheimann@comminit.com

12. Materials - includes over 1,000 publications that focus on communication, development and change themes or have significant coverage of communication strategies and programmes in relation to a specific development issue. These are fully searchable by keyword and development issue. Please send us information on your publications - dheimann@comminit.com

13. As we strive to increase the level of critical analysis of the communication for change field, drawing from material that is contributed to this peer learning process, we have commenced a new style of The Drum Beat every 4 or 5 weeks. These "Analysis Drum Beats" present an opinion based on experience in communication for change work. They are complemented by a Pulse Poll on the same or a similar topic and a discussion through our drumbeatchat discussion forum (click here for threads) To view the most recent Analysis Drum Beat issue, click here. To contribute your analysis for future publication, contact wfeek@comminit.com

ACCESSING INFO AND EACH OTHER

14. Whenever possible, each summarised experience, evaluation, material, event, award, etc. on The CI site has a contact address included for those who seek further information. If something is relevant to your work (or even if not!), if you are interested, or if you have questions or would like clarifications, please drop them a note directly.

15. Our aim is to make information accessible and comprehensible to all with internet access. Most sections of The CI site are searchable by keyword. A phrase search can be done simply by enclosing the phrase within quotation marks (e.g.: "Drum Beat"). Some sections are also searchable by our Custom Search words. To search the entire site through our Custom Search words, click here. We are developing Advanced Search options which should be available later this fall.

16. Would you like to set http://www.comminit.com as your browser Home Page? Just click on "Set as home page" in the upper left corner of any page of The CI site. Mi>Apologies, this service is no longer offered by The CI.

17. How about setting The CI Home Page as a Favorite instead? Just click on "Add to Favorites" in the upper left corner of any page of The CI site.

18. Are you looking for a Consultant? Are you a Consultant looking for a contract? The CI Consultant listing includes consultants working on communication, change and development issues, strategies, and policies and programmes. Apologies, this service is no longer offered by The CI.

19. Are you recruiting staff? The CI Vacancy service is listing of open posts in development and communication organisations. We also provide a frequent list of the most current Vacancies posted through The DB Classifieds Vacancies e-publication, published once a month on the 3rd Wednesday. Vacancies Listing
Contact Jennifer Savidge jsavidge@comminit.com or click here for further information about these services.

20. The Communication Initiative currently has 17 different types of information summarised and available for sharing/contributions from our international network:

 

Contribute your information. Contact Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

***

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.

To subscribe, click here.

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