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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Interactive Radio Instruction for Somalis (IRIS) Project

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To overcome obstacles associated with educating Ethiopia's pastoralist children, who are often on the move, the International Education Systems division of the Education Development Center (EDC) is engaged in the Interactive Radio Instruction for Somalis (IRIS) Project. Launched in August 2001 and funded by USAID, the IRIS Project grew out of a desire to use the medium of radio to address the problems of access to and quality of basic education. The IRIS Project's goal is to build the capacity of Somali educators and technicians to produce and broadcast interactive radio instruction (IRI) programmes that deliver Regional Education Bureau-established curriculum in reading, basic math, and life skills to primary school-age children.
Communication Strategies

IRI is a method of teaching by radio that draws out student participation with drama, songs, question-and-answer sessions, and other activities. Students as a group listen to the series of broadcasts while teachers facilitate the interaction.

This process takes place in Qur'anic or formal schoolrooms, non-formal basic education centres, refugee camps, or any setting that includes a teacher, a group of students, and a radio. Teachers are trained to facilitate the IRI broadcasts. Somali poetry is contributed in an effort to increase children's interest and connect them with their culture's language and art form.

Printed materials are another component of this initiative. When staff failed to find any existing Somali books for children, they wrote 2 basic reading books to enhance the programme.

Development Issues

Education, Children.

Key Points

According to organisers, military conflict, refugee movements, and neglect have left eastern Ethiopia one of the poorest regions on the Horn of Africa. Pastoral Somalis comprise the overwhelming majority in this remote area. For centuries, they have moved across the desert with their herds, living a nomadic way of life that usually occupies entire families.

Organisers say that, while schools that offer basic education are scarce in this region, radios are not. Radio is a common medium for communication throughout the Horn of Africa; many families own their own radios.

Built to support the IRIS programme, a digital recording studio located in the town of Jigjiga (eastern Ethiopia) is housed in the government's Capacity Building Bureau of the Regional Educational Bureau building. Headed by a young woman named Halimo Hassan, "the program's success has come to rely heavily on the newly-acquired expertise of local employees like Halimo. Halimo commented during a recent visit by US Ambassador Brazeal: 'I thought I was going to be a secretary my whole life. But now as a digital producer in Ethiopia, I'm able to help the children of my region.' This optimism speaks for the promise of the IRIS Program and people like Halimo to significantly raise the educational standards of the children in eastern Ethiopia."

Sources

Letter sent from Stephanie Foerster to The Communication Initiative on August 16 2004; and "Remote Jigjiga Boasts One of the Finest Digital Recording Studios in Ethiopia".