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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Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

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The Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) is a global network of partners that collects, analyses, and disseminates information about health system innovations in developing countries with the goal of accelerating the diffusion of successful models. Based on in-country mapping and crowd-sourcing from innovators, CHMI shares information about emerging models in more than 100 countries that could be scaled up or adapted in other countries. The online CHMI database offers interactive, comparable, visual information about a growing number of programmes. Users can search by Program Type, Health Focus, Country of Operation, Target Population, Legal Status, and Target Geography. CHMI is designed for: donors and investors seeking to identify promising candidates for funding, innovators seeking to learn from other programmes around the world and find implementing partners in their own countries, and researchers seeking to study the private sector's role in the health marketplace.
Communication Strategies

The CHMI website is a publicly accessible global knowledge platform designed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and the creation of strategic linkages among those interested in health market innovations (programmes or aspects of programmes) in developing countries that use economic levers to make health care more efficient, of better quality, and more equitable. The goals are to improve quality of care, financial protection, and customer satisfaction. For example, updates on a visit to the website on October 29 2010 feature information about new remote diagnostics programmes working to improve the way health markets perform for the economically poor, details about the 4th annual Open Access Week (a global initiative that promotes open access to information), and the M-Health Africa Summit.

The CHMI database is designed to allow users to find programmes by filtering for a number of characteristics. The user first selects for Program Type, and may then filter by 5 mechanisms by which programmes can improve the marketplace for health, including: Organizing Delivery, Financing Care, Regulating Performance, Changing Behaviours, and Enhancing Processes. Also, descriptive statistics on programme indicators are offered - for instance, how programmes like World Health Partners expand access to people living in remote areas by enhancing processes through information technology (IT) solutions, including broadband-speed video conferencing that connects urban doctors to patients living in remote Indian villages. CHMI also fosters communities of practice designed for sharing lessons, successful tools, and practices. Programme implementers may register their programme with CHMI, learn about similar programmes in more than 100 countries, and search for funders.

Development Issues

Health.

Partners

The Center for Health Market Innovations is coordinated by the Results for Development Institute (R4D) and relies on a broad network of in-country institutions and other partners to collect and disseminate information, conduct analytical work, and form and maintain relationships and networks.

The CHMI network of partners includes ACCESS Health International in India, BroadReach Healthcare in South Africa, Consultation of Investment in Health Promotion in Vietnam, and the Global Health Group at the University of California - San Francisco, as well as a number of other global collaborators. To read more about the CHMI partnerships, click here.

Sources

Emails from Rose Reis to The Communication Initiative on September 13 2010 and November 4 2010; and CHMI website, October 29 2010.