African development action with informed and engaged societies

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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Radio Tamazuj

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Radio Tamazuj is an independent daily news service that has been covering current affairs in South Sudan and the border areas since 2011. The media house has been working in exile since 2015.

Communication Strategies

Tamazuj means 'blend' in Arabic. The name points at once to the vast diversity of Sudan and South Sudan and to the intermingling of the cultures and peoples between the two countries and marginalised border area between the country. Within the station's broadcast area, there are dozens of tribes, each with its own practices and identity. Nonetheless, the South Sudanese (and Sudanese in border areas) are constantly engaging with each other and influencing each other. Radio Tamazuj embraces 'tamazuj' less as ideology than as reality. This suggests the potential for audiences to be not merely passive consumers of information, but active contributors to the cultural and information forms transmitted by Radio Tamazuj.

Listeners anywhere in Sudan or South Sudan can receive Radio Tamazuj through shortwave radio for two hours per day, one in the morning and one in the evening. The shows daily contain different programmes, ranging from Juba Arabic news, sports news, and vox-pop to a reconciliation programme about peacebuilding and justice initiatives. The station also features reporting on regional, international, and multilateral initiatives related to South Sudanese affairs, as well as reporting on justice, crime, courts, and human rights abuses. Radio Tamazuj news reports also appear on the Radio Tamazuj website - which, however, is blocked in-country - and various social media channels in two languages: Arabic and English.

A network of undercover journalists in South Sudan delivers the daily news with which the Radio Tamazuj journalists can make their broadcasts. The editing team at Radio Tamazuj consists of journalists from the region.

Development Issues

Conflict, Human Rights

Key Points

According to Free Press Unlimited, in South Sudan in recent years, the state of freedom of expression has been declining rapidly. Journalists and media can no longer report independently and uncensored there.

Partners

Free Press Unlimited (FPU) has supported Radio Tamazuj both financially and operationally - for example with targeted training, varying from organisational management to investigative journalism courses. Radio Tamazuj is independent from FPU as of 2020.

Sources

Email from Julia Herzog to The Communication Initiative on December 5 2019; emails from Marnix de Witte to The Communication Initiative on January 7 2020 and January 27 2020; and Radio Tamazuj website, Free Press Unlimited website, and Radio Tamazuj on Twitter - all accessed on January 7 2020. Image credit: Free Press Unlimited