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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Interpreting Violence

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Subtitle
Anti-Civilian Thinking and Practice and How to Argue Against It More Effectively

Author

  • Hugo Slim
  • Deborah Mancini-Griffoli
The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue's (HD Centre's) recent publication "Interpreting Violence: Anti-civilian thinking and practice and how to argue against it more effectively" is a short guide intended "to help anyone concerned with the protection of civilians to think through the anti-civilian ideologies and methods being used in a war so that they can better recognize them and negotiate against them more effectively to limit violence against civilians." Produced with the support of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), this booklet concentrates on the perspective of the perpetrators of civilian suffering, and examines why they use civilian suffering as an aim and method of war and how they mobilise others to do so. It tries to interpret the motives, interests, and social conditioning of the perpetrators of violence against civilians.

The contents include:
  1. Introduction
  2. What is the civilian idea in war?
  3. How is civilian suffering used as political strategy?
  4. Why do people decide to hurt civilians?
  5. What makes an anti-civilian movement?
  6. How to challenge anti-civilian thinking and practice?
  7. How to shape a pro-civilian dialogue
  8. Final thoughts
  9. Further reading from HD Centre


Publication Date
Number of Pages

40

Source

e-CIVICUS, April 2008.

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