Social Change
Social change action with informed and engaged societies
Social Change

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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Empowerment Self-defense - Reduced Past-year Sexual Assault Prevalence

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Strategy researched

Empowerment self-defense to bolster self-confidence and verbal and physical safety skills in order to prevent sexual violence perpetrated again adolescent girls and young women

Impact achieved

The IMPower programme showed a reduction in 32% of the occurrence of sexual assault in the past year among students who participated compared to students who did not take part. Students who participated were 3.33 times more likely to have knowledge in self-defense, compared to the control group. In the intervention group, 43% of girls said they had used the programme-learned skills to stop forced sex since training. Of the girls who used the skills, 52% reported using the learned skills more than once to stop forced sex. An additional 53% of girls reporting using the skills also to stop harassment, and 52% reported using the skills to stop physical violence.

Country of study

Malawi

Research methodology

Cluster RCT with 7,832 students

Journal

BMC Public Health; 2018

Journal paper title and link

Sexual violence among adolescent girls and young women in Malawi: a cluster-randomized controlled implementation trial of empowerment self-defense training

Excerpt from Abstract

"This intervention reduced sexual violence victimization in both primary and secondary school settings. Results support the effectiveness of ESD to address sexual violence, and approach the elimination of violence against women and girls set forth with Sustainable Development Goal #5. Implementation within the education system can enable sustainability and reach."