Soul Beat Africa
African development action with informed and engaged societies
Soul Beat Africa

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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Reaching Every Child: Improving Public Trust amd Operational Quality for Increasing OPV Uptake

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Affiliation

Nigeria Country Team, UNICEF

Date
Summary

This was presented at the June 2004 UNICEF meeting dedicated to examining communication in the context of the final push to eradicate polio. The presentation provided an overview of the epidemiological history, current trends and risk factors in Nigeria, as well as the country-specific communication strategies.


In Nigeria in 2004, the number of wild polio cases is more than 4 times that in 2003, and the number of infected states has doubled. Contributing factors include: the suspension of polio immunisation in Kano in July 2003 due to perceived lack of vaccine safety; funding problems; and low coverage of supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) in the north. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) has since been sourced from Indonesia and it is hoped that this action will lead to a resumption of the immunisation campaign in Kano State.


A detailed analysis of the reasons given for children being missed and the primary sources of information regarding OPV are presented. The communication strategy includes: media management (focusing on positive media coverage), production of media kits (including information about OPV safety), development of partnerships with national and international media, engagement of political leadership, dialogue with and cross-border interaction among key religious leaders, and increased output of radio serials, TV spots, radio jingles, and the like. Goals include: regaining public trust in OPV, achieving high-quality SIAs in the fall of 2004 (3 are planned), and revitalising routine immunisation.


Click here to download the full presentation as a PDF file.


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