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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Language Rights Fellowship

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The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is offering a Language Rights Fellowship designed to advocate for and support the development of indigenous African languages in Southern Africa. Its overall objective is to support indigenous languages serving the needs of their speakers in all spheres of life. According to OSISA, one of the requisites for the realisation of an open society is equal and complete access to information for all citizens and access to quality education for all. These ideals can be achieved only if people communicate and are communicated with in the language(s) in which they think and feel, i.e., their mother tongues.

The goals of the language rights fellowship are to:

  • change Southern Africans' negative attitude towards the use of indigenous languages for official and day-to-day purposes;
  • influence Southern African governments' national and official language policies and language in education policies; and
  • advocate for and support the development of indigenous African languages in the region for them to be used for social, political, economic, and scientific and technological advancement.

OSISA will support advocacy initiatives that strengthen intra-national and international multilingualism in Southern Africa, such as interventions that promote and develop marginalised indigenous languages of the region; projects that develop and support the use of technology in and for indigenous languages; practical cross-cutting research that integrates indigenous languages and projects in each of the following OSISA programmes: Economic Justice, Education, HIV and AIDS, Human Rights and Democracy Building, Informations and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and Media; and practical linguistic research that will help foster the role of language in empowering women, youth, and other marginalised groups in the region.

Click here to download the fellowship guidelines in PDF format.

Application Info

According to OSISA, any organisation or individual wanting to get funds or establish a partnership with OSISA should send an initial letter of inquiry that shows how its own initiative relates to the mission, strategies, and guidelines of OSISA. This letter should present the executive summary of the proposal and should include the project's goals and objectives, the activities of the project, the rationale and methodology, expected outputs, and a budget summarising resources needed for the whole project and what is being requested from OSISA. The inquiry letter should not be longer than two pages. OSISA programme staff will review the initial inquiry and engage in further discussions with the applicant, should the proposal show promise. The applicant will then be asked to submit a full proposal.

Source

OSISA website on January 27 2011.