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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Text Messages - Correct Malaria Treatment Increased up to 24.5%

1 comment

Strategy researched

Text message reminders

Impact achieved

23.7% improvement in correct artemether-lumefantrine management immediately after intervention & 24.5% six months later.

Country of study

Kenya

Research methodology

Cluster RCT at 107 rural health facilities with 2,269 child cases

Journal

The Lancet; 2011

Journal paper title and link

The effect of mobile phone text-message reminders on Kenyan health workers' adherence to malaria treatment guidelines: a cluster randomised trial

Excerpt from Abstract

"119 health workers received the intervention. Case-management practices were assessed for 2269 children who needed treatment (1157 in the intervention group and 1112 in the control group). Intention-to-treat analysis showed that correct artemether-lumefantrine management improved by 23·7 percentage-points (95% CI 7·6–40·0; p=0·004) immediately after intervention and by 24·5 percentage-points (8·1–41·0; p=0·003) 6 months later."

Abstract at this link

 

Comments

Submitted by tturk on Thu, 05/18/2023 - 00:42 Permalink

Research approaches that demonstrate a simple intervention such as mobile messaging using a robust study design within health centers can show measurable behavioural impact. Unfortunately, RCTs are much more difficult where a range of SBCC approaches are used including mass media which has broad reach to population groups. In this instance recall of interventions is a good proxy measure of attendance to the intervention and subsequent behavioural impact. We have an article pending with PLOS ONE which demonstrates the efficacy of the approach.