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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Published 16 years ago
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Women'sNet

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CONTACT PERSON: Sally-Jean Shackleton PHYSICAL ADDRESS: Sci-Bono Discovery Centre Miriam Makeba Street Newtown Johannesburg South Africa POSTAL ADDRESS: P O Box 62577 Marshalltown South Africa, 2017 TELEPHONE: +27 11 429 0000 FAX: +27 11 838 9871 E-MAIL:sally@womensnet.org.zaWEB-SITE:Women'sNet websiteWomen’sNet is a South African organization working nationally and regionally, to support women’s networking, collaboration, activism and action for gender equality and social change through the strategic use of information and communications technology (ICTS).

We were established formally in 1998 by the Commission on Gender Equality and SANGONeT. Our formal start was preceded by a meeting of women’s activists, rights defenders and feminists to set out a mission and vision for Women’sNet. We operated as a project of SANGONeT until 2003, when we separated to form our own NGO.

Women'sNet targets South African women and girls and the organisations that represent them.

Our goals are to:
  • Provide training that supports women, girls, women’s organisations and networks to develop content and harness the technologies that support their social and organisational objectives;
  • Create content platforms and processes that amplify women and girl’s voices, experiences and stories;
  • Use ICTs to support gender-aware programming, advocacy and networking for collective action;
  • Conduct research and undertaking advocacy initiatives to integrate gender perspectives into ICT policies and programmes;
  • Impact on poor and marginalised communities livelihood strategies through the innovative use of ICTs.
Activities 2009-2012 relating to Violence Against Women and Women’s Participation: 1. EroTICs: Research on Women’s Sexualities and the Internet . This is a global project and we are working with South African researchers to investigate South African women’s sexualities and ICTs. 2. Violence Against women and ICTs: This project, in collaboration with the Association for Progressive Communications, will be conducting research, activism and capacity building on Violence Against women and ICTS. 3. Take Back the Tech: A Campaign to address violence against women on the Internet, to take up cyber space in support of ending violence against women and girls. 4. Feminist Tech EXchange: training for women activists on using technology for advocacy, organising and activism on violence Against women. 5. SA Feminist Forum: A network of South African feminist activists. 6. Sex workers and Cellphones: a project exploring the potential of using mobile technologies for safety and activism around sex workers and safety. 7. Support for the Women’s Movement: Listservs, websites and mobile communications support. 8. Amplifying Women’s Voices: Citizen journalism training, training women’s organisations to use technologies to make their voices heard and the voices of their constituencies. 9. Strengthening Women’s organisations to use technology strategically in the management, planning and data protection and sharing through our technology planning, website planning, information management and communication planning work.