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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Digital Empowerment Foundation

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Grounded in the conviction that information barriers are a core cause of underdevelopment in India, the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) uses information and communication technology (ICT) in an effort to ensure that information delivery is facilitated using every possible strategy - including making information services available in local language content. The goal of this New Delhi-based non-profit organisation is to make information technology and the internet available to those who do not know English, and who, in general, may not have access to the technology infrastructure that would allow them to utilise ICT. A larger aim is helping these persons flourish economically and connecting them with others around the world. The intended audience is non-English-speaking people in countries that are aligned with the South Asian Association for Regional co-operation (SAARC), countries that have access to personal computers (PCs) and the internet but are unable to use them given the lack of applications or operating systems in the vernacular languages of the sub-continent.
Communication Strategies

This programme involves an effort to develop corporate computing solutions, e-governance solutions, and communication solutions in local languages using a standardised font and technology. Specifically, the initative consists in the creation of a workforce made up of motivated individuals, non-profit organisations, government, research agencies, and hardware and software companies and businesses to work towards a standard in local languages. To that end, the programme offers localised interface to people so that they may access the desktop, office software, and other necessary applications in their own language. An associated effort is the offering of the internet browser in all the major Indian languages. The programme also offers news, information, knowledge, and wisdom in any Indian language by means of aggregation as well as content creation on the internet without any bottlenecks like "asking for font downloads."

Various ICT news, events, statistics, and projects - some of which are being undertaken by DEF - are detailed on the DEF website and in this document on DEF and its work (January 2019, PDF). For example, DEF's Neerjaal software is designed to enable effective groundwater management with effective participation from the local community. Various research initiatives are also described here, such as DEF's Education Technology Report, carried out for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

One of DEF's primary strategies is to offer an annual award for the "best e-content in development". Each year, DEF invites nominations from South Asian countries for the Manthan Award.

Development Issues

Technology, Economic Development.

Key Points

Four C Plus is a technology solutions company that has worked to craft technologies and solutions to overcome the language barrier. It has agreed to offer all the proprietary software and IPR developed over 12 years to be distributed and installed on a cost-to-cost (no profit - no loss) basis. Four C Plus will also help evaluate existing technologies.

Partners

Four C Plus (Internet) Company Pvt. Ltd., AgriWatch, Inomy Media Pvt. Ltd., VANI (Voluntary Action Network India), Netsansar, NIIT, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Inomy.

Sources

Email from Frederick Noronha to the Creative-Radio listserv on May 3 2002; and DEF website, June 4 2002 and May 18 2020.