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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Red Cross/Red Crescent Avian Influenza Prevention Programme

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In February 2006, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies launched an initiative to prevent the spread of avian influenza (AI) in Nigeria. In response to the confirmation of an AI outbreak in poultry, this programme sought to assist the Nigeria Red Cross Society in further assessing the situation, especially with regard to the risks to human health, and to plan an effective response that is sensitive to the fact that chicken remain the main source of income and food in Nigeria. Key goals included ensuring local community involvement in sharing avian flu prevention information, preparing the community to face food security crisis which may also affect their livelihood, and increasing surveillance and mobilisation for the eradication of the pandemic.
Communication Strategies

Interpersonal communication and collaboration have been key to this volunteer-based effort. To develop an emergency strategy, a health delegate was deployed to the Federation Regional Office in Lagos, which then travelled to Abuja to provide technical support for the actions of the Nigeria Red Cross Society. In addition to zonal health officers with more than 24 health coordinators in different states, the Nigeria Red Cross Society has a community-based health care programme that includes more than 300 mothers' clubs working with a pool of about 9,000 volunteers who have participated in various sensitisation and mobilisation campaigns. This backdrop explains the focus on local community involvement in sharing information, and mobilising action, to halt the spread of AI among poultry - as well as to prevent its migration to the human population.

Partnership was a key means for assessing the epidemiological situation, for working toward a regional strategy, and for communicating about developments and activities in the field. Specifically, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH), World Health Organization (WHO), and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Nigeria Red Cross society developed and carried out a response that included:

  • training Red Cross volunteers in community social mobilisation and health education to prevent human infection and to collaborate with others in controlling the outbreak
  • deploying these trained volunteers in affected communities to conduct community mobilisation and sensitisation at the household level
  • creating and distributing information materials to farmers and the mass population, in an effort to inform them of the danger of AI, its mode of contamination, and how to prevent its spread.
Development Issues

Health, Food Security.

Key Points

Bird flu was officially declared on February 8 2006 in Nigeria, with identified cases of the highly pathogenic AI virus H5N1 in poultry in the village of Jaji located in the Northern State of Kaduna. That same day, the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture announced that all suspected birds nationwide would be killed and buried in order to contain the outbreak. The fear of a geographical spread to other West African countries led most neighbouring countries to take strenuous measures to ban all poultry importations from Nigeria. As of this writing, no human case has been reported.

Sources

Information bulletin: Nigeria avian influenza DREF - 24 February 2006 [PDF]; and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: Public Health in Emergencies - Avian Influenza.