Development action with informed and engaged societies

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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Life Skills and Safe Spaces - Changes in Gender Attitudes (including around Rites of Passage)

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Strategy researched
A life skills and safe spaces programme to reduce adolescent girls' experiences of interpersonal violence in a refugee setting

Impact achieved
Adolescents in the intervention reported they believed girls should complete one additional year of schooling as compared with those in the control group (Beta (B)=1.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44-1.761), p=0.001). Girls in the treatment arm also had greater odds than girls in the control arm of believing a girl should get married (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=1.88, 95% CI 1.07-3.28, p=0.027) and have her first child after age 18 (aOR=2.04, 95% CI 1.25-3.34, p=0.005). Finally, girls in the intervention had 1.71 greater odds (95% CI (1.18-2.49, p=0.005) of reporting having friends their own age and 1.997 greater odds (95% CI 1.44-2.76, p<0.001) of having a trusted non-family female adult in their life, when adjusting for other covariates. Among those married or living with someone as if married at baseline, girls in the treatment arm had lower odds (OR 0.57; 95% CI 0.34-0.95), p=0.032) of being married at endline as compared with those in the control arm.

Country of study
Ethiopia

Research methodology
Cluster RCT

Journal
BMJ Global; 2018

Journal paper title and link
Preventing violence against refugee adolescent girls: findings from a cluster randomised controlled trial in Ethiopia

Excerpt from Abstract
"At 12-month follow-up, the intervention was not significantly associated with reduction in exposure to sexual violence (adjusted OR =0.96, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.57), other forms of violence, transactional sex or feelings of safety. The intervention was associated with improvements in attitudes around rites of passage and identified social supports. Additionally, the intervention showed a decrease in reported child marriage among girls who were married at baseline."