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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Mobiles In-a-Box: Tools and Tactics for Mobile Advocacy

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This project of the Tactical Tech is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides, and case studies designed to help advocacy and activist organisations use mobile technology in their work. It is available in English and French.

 

Mobiles in-a-box provides tools and tactics to use mobile phones for:

 

  1. Outreach and participation: Helping people participate in civil society by providing short message service (SMS) platforms so they can engage with decision-makers.
  2. Fundraising and resource mobilisation: Using mobile phones to raise money for rights advocacy work through SMS campaigns and the use of mobile payments.
  3. People's media: Using the multimedia capacity of mobiles to create content and to post content online.
  4. Coordinating and mobilising: Using mobile phones to organise meetings, to put out calls to action and to communicate in emergencies and during events.



All of Tactical Tech's toolkits and guides are developed using a participatory peer review methodology. Mobiles in-a-box was initially developed with more than 50 rights advocates and technologists. It has been tested thoroughly by six human rights organisations in Africa to ensure its relevance to rights advocates working in this region.

 

Tactical Tech use Creative Commons licenses and encourage rights advocates to translate and re-mix their toolkits and guides. Tactical Tech is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) that supports human rights advocates to use information, communications, and digital technologies to maximise the impact of their advocacy work.

 

The development of Mobiles in-a-box supported by Hivos and the Open Society Institute.

 

 

Click here to access a web-based contact form for Mobiles In-a-Box (hard copies in English only).
Source

Women of Uganda (WOUGNET) website accessed on May 5 2009; and email from Tanya Notley to The Communication Initiative on September 4 2009 and October 9 2009.

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