Polio
Polio eradication action with informed and engaged societies
Polio

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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This Close Campaign

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This Rotary International public awareness campaign centres around public service announcements (PSAs) emphasising that Rotary has reached 99% of its goal to eradicate Polio. The PSAs encourage the public to support the effort to finish off the final one percent. The campaign's tagline is: "We're this close to ending polio."

Communication Strategies

The centrepiece of the campaign is a print advertisement built around the tagline and a portrait photograph of each participant (a diverse group of celebrities and other major public figures are taking part) doing the signature "This Close" gesture with their thumb and forefinger.

 

In order to encourage further public support for its effort to eradicate polio, Rotary International turned to the internet. Visitors to the This Close website may join the influential leaders who have signed on for the final push to eradicate polio by creating their own version of the PSA and uploading it to the website. Once a person creates an ad, he or she can share the personalised “This Close" ad with friends and family through email and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in order to generate further awareness of the fight to end polio and encourage them to add their name to the ranks of supporters of the fight to end polio. It is also possible to add a personal message of support, enter the submitter's country, and see which countries are digitally leading the charge to spread awareness for polio eradication.

Development Issues

Polio.

Sources

Polio News No. 37; and This Close website, August 2 2011.