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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Impact Data - Jiggasha Health Communication

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Date
Knowledge Shifts
Jiggasha participants were 2.1 times more likely to name four modern methods of birth control than those who did not attend the meetings.
Practices
About 30% of the women adopted a new contraceptive method, 22 percent continued using their current method, 17% visited a family planning clinic, and 7% said they switched to a new contraceptive method as a result of the Jiggasha meetings.
Attitudes
63.8% of participants had a positive attitude towards family planning (56.5% for non-participants). 79.4 % of participants husbands approved of the family planning methods compared to 73.7 for non-participants. For disapproving husbands, 94% did not use modern contraceptives
Increased Discussion of Development Issues
Over 50% of the participants said that due to the meetings they discussed family planning methods with their husbands and other women. Women who attended the meetings were 3.1 times more likely to discuss family planning with other women than non-participants, and 1.7 times more likely to discuss family planning with their husbands than non-attendants.
Other Impacts
  • In the 12 Jiggasha villages the mean rate of modern method [contraceptive] use increased from 1989 to 1992 by 11.4% points - from 13.9 per cent to 24.9 percent.
  • [This compared with the increase] in the mean rate of modern contraceptive use in the control villages of 5.3 percentage points, from 24.8 per cent to 30.1 percent.
  • The increase in the villages with the jiggasha approach was twice as great as in the control villages. The intervention succeeded in helping these villages to “catch up” to the level of the control villages in terms of modern contraceptive use.
  • Jiggasha participation [is] most strongly associated with discussion of family planning with other women [participants 3.1 times more likely than non-participants]; recall of more than four modern methods [ 2.1 times more likely]; discussion of family planning with husbands [1.7 times more likely]; positive attitudes to family planning [1.4 times more likely].
  • The percentage of eligible married women using modern methods increased cumulatively and significantly with each additional step to behaviour change that applied – via: Knowledge; Approval; Intention; Practice; Advocacy. Prevalence rates in use of modern contraceptives according to number of steps taken was:
    • No steps – zero use
    • One step - 5%
    • Two steps – 30%
    • Three steps – [not available]
    • Four steps – 54%
    • Five steps – 69%
  • Of the women who participated in jiggasha discussion groups 88% ranked high (with 4 or 5 steps) on the steps to behaviour change. 35% of women exposed to neither intervention [discussion group or home visit] ranked high.
  • 75% of women exposed to strong communication intervention - jiggasha discussion groups led by a family welfare assistant – were most likely to use modern contraceptive methods.
  • 56% of those who were visited by a family welfare assistant at home but did not attend jiggashas [discussion groups] were modern method users.
  • 17% of women exposed neither to jiggasha nor home visits used modern methods.
Source
Piotrow, P.T., Kincaid, D.L., Rimon II, J.G., Rinehart, W., “Health Communication - Lessons from Family Planningand Reproductive Health”. John Hopkins School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs. 1997, pp. 147-154.