Gathering in person to advance 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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Quanto Mais Cedo, Maior (The sooner, the bigger)

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Summary:
A childs brain is built via an interplay of neural connections that are shaped by their environment, connections that shape the way children grow, learn and flourish. Children in disadvantaged communities are deprived of conditions that fuel these connections i.e. appropriate nutrition, protection from abuse, responsive caregiving, quality education. Our theory of change states that building the capabilities of caregivers and strengthening the communities that together form the environment of relationships essential to childrens lifelong learning, health, and behavior, we improve their development. The webseries Quanto Mais Cedo Maior (The sooner, the bigger) simplifies contemporary scientific knowledge - typically inaccessible to low-income populations - into actionable, 10-minute videos that help parents identify development needs (cognitive, language, etc) of children. To engage the audience, the series is presented by the most famous doctor in Brazils media Dr. Drauzio Varella known for TV shows at the countrys leading television channel and currently the biggest health-related Youtube page, showcasing real stories from families and celebrities. 30s short videos will help launch and disseminate the series via private messaging. To understand and quantify impact, we will be using nudgebots, which are positive reinforcements that suggest behavior and encourage choices that promote behavior change. Using text messages, they will collect data regarding parents knowledge and practices to measure the social and behavior changes that result from this communication strategy. Users status, interactions with our nudgebots, and clustered predictions for the relevant KPIs can be monitored via dashboards that display real-time data.

Background/Objectives:
A childs brain is built via an interplay of neural connections that are shaped by their environment, connections that shape the way children grow, learn and flourish. Children in disadvantaged communities are deprived of conditions that fuel these connections i.e. appropriate nutrition, protection from abuse and responsive caregiving, quality education. Our theory of change states that building the capabilities of caregivers and strengthening the communities that together form the environment of relationships essential to childrens lifelong learning, health, and behavior, we improve their development.

Results/Lessons Learned:
Collaborative proccess with support of 5 Foundations. New technology applied to monitoring and evaluation. Official launch in October, 2019. Results to be shared first-hand at SBCC Summit 2020.

Discussion/Implications for the Field:
Measuring the impact of new technologies: how do these innovations help shape participation, political and social processes, behaviors and norms; what evidence exists to optimize the use of new technologies for SBCC; how do we use new methodologies to understand and quantify impact; what is the impact of user privacy issues on research and learning.

Abstract submitted by:
Manuela Parisi Braga - Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal
Paula Perim - Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal
Raquel Maldonado - Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal