The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
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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Communicators Network for Children and Youth

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This network was created with the aim of giving voice to Honduran children and adolescents. It seeks to promote their role and participation through organising, leadership, and social mobilisation.

Using written media, radio and television, and popular theatre, children and youth report on issues that affect them and promote their rights. This participation is aimed to convert them from being passive subjects of policies designed and implemented by adults to being agents of change.

The first Communicators Network for Children and Youth of Honduras emerged in 1990 in Tegucigalpa, under the name of "Kids Stuff", comprising a group of theatre people associated with a private TV channel. The second network was installed in La Ceiba, Honduras, in the Caribbean region, for producing radio programmes in San Isidro, with the support of the Catholic Church and the municipality.

Communication Strategies

The Red de Comunicadores Infantiles y Juvenilesis, now developed in every department of the country with more than 70 networks of communicators, is formed of groups of 10-40 children or teenagers ranging in age from 6 to 18 years. Periodically, they receive training in child rights and community organisation as well as radio and television production, among other benefits.

 

One result of these collaborations is TVC Children, a programme made by children for children. This initiative has been supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) since 2003 and is a new model for citizen participation and dissemination of child rights information on its space for communication, education, and participation at local and regional levels.

Development Issues

Rights, Children, Youth.

Key Points

As part of the promotion of public policies focused on children, the Network created a presentation for the Association of Municipalities of Honduras (AMHON), a proposal to the mayors, to allocate an annual budget focused to childhood, adolescence, and youth by creating the "Municipal Programs for Children, Adolescents and Youth." These programmes would allow child, adolescence, and youth participation in making important decisions in their municipalities, and they would that seek resources of corporations for programmes, not only by investment in infrastructure. The Network has also driven implementation of the Code of Childhood and Adolescence governing Honduras since 1996 and the creation of the National Institute of Youth.

 

Partners

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Sources

Challenges Bulletin, No. 16 and the Red de Comunicadores Infantiles y Juveniles website, March 26 2015.