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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Abstracts process - SBCC Summit 18 - Secretariat

5 comments

The space for consideration, discussion and agreement by the Secretariat for the Abstracts process for the SBCC Summit 2018.

file_9495807_37073.docx

Comments

Submitted by aventh on Fri, 10/13/2017 - 10:40 Permalink

Hi can I please check that this language is correct following the recent discussions and clarifications? 

The International SBCC Summit 2018 is offering a limited number of scholarships for eligible Master’s and Doctoral-level students as well as SBCC field practitioners. Scholarships will be selected from amongst people who (a) submit an Abstract and (b) in the process of submitting the abstract request financial support to attend the Summit. The selection of scholarships will be made by a committee formed by the Summit organisers for that purpose. 

Is that correct?

Plus just to note on the web site that the language is still confusing. This is the Scholarships page but the text calls them Sponsorships (I corrected above). However there is a Sponsorships page for a very different purpose. Propose getting consistent text. 

And still makes little sense to me that Visas and Lodging are sub-categories of Scholarships and are only revealed if you click on or mouse over Scholarships?

Yes, for now what is on the website is, "The International SBCC Summit 2018 will be offering a limited number of scholarships. More information will be posted soon." As Jane noted, the Scholarship subcommittee met yesterday and will share the new suggested language with the Secretariat to discuss on Thursday's call.  

We have changed the text on the Scholarship page to call them scholarships rather than sponsorships as per the above - thanks for catching that!

Visas and Lodging were actually sub-categories of "Visiting Nusa Dua" (not Scholarships), but we have changed it so that Visas and Lodging are now their own sub-categories under the main, "About the 2018 Summit" heading. 

Jen - Hi and thanks for the notes on the scholarships language and other matters. Just a quick follow up.

One of the reasons that Anja sent the draft text she did for review is that from the feedback we are receiving it may accelerate the abstracts submissions process if people can see that there is a possibility of gaining support to attend and present. This particularly applies to smaller orgs. 

if you can take this into account wth the revised language that would be excellent.

Thanks - Warren