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Summits - SBCC and C4D
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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Impact of a community-based comprehensive primary healthcare programme on infant and child mortality in Bolivia

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Perry, H. B., D. S. Shanklin, et al. (2003). "Impact of a community-based comprehensive primary healthcare programme on infant and child mortality in Bolivia." Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition 21(4): 383-395.

OBJECTIVE: Community-based comprehensive primary healthcare programmes are a widely-promoted strategy for improving child survival in less-developed countries, but limited documentation exists concerning their effectiveness in actually reducing child mortality. This study examined the impact of a community-based comprehensive primary healthcare programme on child survival in Bolivia.

METHODS: Mortality rates from two intervention areas where Andean Rural Health Care (ARHC) had been conducting child-survival activities for 5-9 years were compared with those from two geographically-adjacent comparison areas that lacked such activities and that were virtually identical to the intervention areas in socioeconomic characteristics. Vital events were registered at the time of regular visit to all homes. In the comparison areas, limited services were available which reached only a small percentage of the population, while in the intervention areas, prenatal care, immunizations, growth monitoring, nutrition rehabilitation, and acute curative services were readily available to the entire population, in 1992-1993, the annual rates of mortality of children, aged less than five years, were 205.5 per 1,000 and 98.5 per 1,000 in the comparison and intervention areas respectively.

RESULTS: The absolute difference in mortality of 107.0 deaths per 1,000 (95% confidence interval [CI], 72.7-141.3 per 1,000) represented 52.1% (95% CI, 35.2-68.8%) lower mortality of children aged less than five years in the intervention areas compared to the control communities,

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the provision of community-based, integrated health services can significantly improve child survival in poor countries. Better-designed and larger field trials of community-based comprehensive primary healthcare programmes in multiple regions of the world are needed to provide a stronger scientific basis for developing this approach further in developing countries.