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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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Priorities survey - some initial insights

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To: The Communication Initiative Partners
From: Warren

Hi folks - welcome to 2017! Much strength for your very imprtant work.

As you may be aware we have just commenced a couple of ongoing processes to take the temperature of our field of work. I hope that you have completed the very short survey on the Priorities, Opportunities and Challenges for your work and the quick poll on what keeps you awake at night (work related only please!)  If not, please do!

There have now been over 200 responses to the survey on the Priorities, Opportunities and Challenges for your work  Interestingly, the pattern for those responses has remained constant since the 100 mark. Just a few insights follow (you can see the full options here ) In each case below respondents could select more than one option:

Responses from 55 countries to date

In response to the Q: Which Development issues are the main focus for your work? there is a very even spread with 11 of the options selected by over 25% of respondents: Poverty; Children; Economic Development; Adolescent/Youth; HIV/AIDS; Democracy and Governance; Health; Media Development; Education; Rights; and, Rural Development.

In response to the Q: What do you regard as the major OPPORTUNITIES for your communication, media, social and behavioural change initiatives? there is also an even spread but 5 responses were selected by over 40% of respondents: Rising importance of the voices of the people with whom you work; Growing levels of engagement by the people with whom you work; Growth of social media; The main Development priorities requiring people-centred responses; and, Increasing recognition of the interrelationship between Development issues that are most often regarded as separate and distinct.

In response to the Q: What WORRIES you most for the future of your work? a lot of respondents highlighted funding (65% to date) but there were also very solid numbers for Absence of compelling impact evidence data (41%); Comparative absence of the communication, media, social and behavioural change perspective voice in policy making fora (35%) and Frustration in trying to explain what you do in ways that others quickly understand (33%).
 
In response to the Q: What are the main PRIORITIES for your work at present?  there are 14 options and so far the spread is pretty narrow - 10 are above 30% - see the full options here  

In addition to the numbers above, respondents have submitted lots of comments - 302 written comments to date. We will soon commence a review and analysis of these. 

Happy to answer any questions of course. And, if you have not yet contributed to the survey on the Priorities, Opportunities and Challenges for your work and/or the quick poll on what keeps you awake at night (work related only please!) please do!

Have an excellent 2017 - Warren

Comments

Submitted by Warren Feek on Wed, 01/18/2017 - 11:48 Permalink

To: The CI Partners

From: Warren

There have been a number of reviews of The Communication Initiative platform. Presently, we have just tagged on a few questions about The Communication Initiative experience into the survey related to social and behavioural change, communication and media for development (see previous thread). The following are very early results (216 completed) but the pattern has remained constant as new people add their voice:
 
In answer to “Please tell us a little bit about how you use The Communication Initiative“ (multiple answers allowed):
 

  • 37% checked "Inform programme development"
  • 33% -" Find insights that strengthen policy development";
  • 34% - "Advance advocacy initiatives";
  • 33% - "Identify people and organisations that can support our work";
  • 63% - "Enhance my own skills and knowledge";
  • 69% - "Keep up-to-date on knowledge"; and
  • 62% - "Understand emerging ideas and debates".

 
In answer to “Overall, how do you rate the added value of The Communication Initiative Global, Soul Beat Africa and/or La Iniciativa de Comunicación to your work”: (again multiple allowed)

  • Indispensable - 13.16%;
  • Extremely valuable - 22.37%;
  • Highly Valuable - 40.79%;
  • Good to have - 32.24%;
  • Not very helpful - 7.89%;
  • Useless - 3.95%.

There are also 216 examples provided of how people use The Communication Initiative platform.

 
We have been monitoring these results as they come through. Though the numbers responding are still reasonably low in this new survey, the % answers for each option  have remained very constant since about the 100 responder mark. We will continue to update results from this survey as it moves forward. 

Most happy to respond to any questions
 
Thanks - Warren