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.
 
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 Data - Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Project (TEHIP)

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A collaboration between Tanzania's Ministry of Health and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), TEHIP was established to test innovations in planning, priority setting, and resource allocation at the district level, in the context of the reform and decentralisation of Tanzania's health care system. A heavily indebted country with a per capita income of $290 that spends $8 a year on the health of each of its citizens, Tanzania was seeking ways to improve the health of its citizens on a small budget. In two rural districts, Rufiji and Morogoro, TEHIP worked to:

  • strengthen district-level capacity to plan and set priorities using locally obtained burden of disease and cost-effectiveness considerations
  • increase district-level capacity to effectively deliver selected health interventions
  • assess and document lessons learned in district health planning and management systems/processes
  • measure the overall impact of delivering health interventions in terms of burden of disease and per capita cost.
Practices
Average clinic visits per child increased from 2.8 to 5.8 a year. More children were treated for malaria, more early cases of worms were spotted, more eye infections were caught, more AIDS messages were shared, and more mothers had exposure to family planning information.

Child mortality fell in the 2 districts by more than 40% over the 5 years of implementation. Adult mortality dropped by about 20%, even as AIDS was beginning to spread. During this period, districts not using the TEHIP plan experienced virtually no change in their death rates.
Other Impacts
In accomplishing the above, the districts were able to use just 30 cents out of TEHIP's promised $2 increase the first year. (The figure increased to 89 cents in the second year, and $1.37 in the third.)
Source
Article "Canadian Project Halves Tanzania's Child Deaths", by Stephanie Nolen, Globe and Mail, January 24 2005 (available for purchase only) - forwarded to the bytesforall_readers list server on January 27 2005 (click here to access the archives); and IDRC website.