Movement Strategy in Africa Great Lakes

This page presents information relating to the implementation of the movement's strategy for Africa Great Lakes region.

The Movement Strategy is a collaborative effort to imagine and build the future of the Wikimedia Movement. This strategy brings structural and cultural changes to address challenges and new opportunities. Thousands of volunteers and more than a hundred groups have defined this strategy. Currently, Movement Strategy is being implemented with goals set for 2030. Anyone can contribute to the Movement Strategy, from a comment to a full-time project.

We carry out detailed assessments of needs in the eastern DRC, Burundi and Rwanda, generally related to the Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili languages, using French and English as international languages.

Introduction and Background

The first movement strategy discussion we attended as Wikimedia Rwanda were organized in Kampala Uganda in September 2019 by Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda, which provided us with insights about the movement strategy and better engagement practices

The Wikimedia Burundi community started also in September 2019 and has been growing faster participating in various global movement activities

The Wikimedia community in DRC has been in existence since 2018.
Our three communities had been collaborating on a small scale and based on individual’s relationship, it’s after agreeing to conduct together this strategy that we are more than interlinked with various projects we conduct together.
This initiative started as a grant project as a part of movement strategy implementation grant: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/MSIG/Nyinawumuntu/MSIG_in_Africa_great_lakes_region

Vision

Towards a skilled and integrated community in Wikimedia communities in Africa great lakes region.

Mission

Skills development and community engagement in Wikimedia communities in Africa great lakes region

Objectif

The main objectives are the skills development and community engagement as inspired by the global movement strategy recommendation six to invest in skills development

The following key points are the priorities:

Skills development, Community development plan, Community empowerment plan,
Strategic organizational setup,
Collaboration and partnerships

Community Growth and Impact

The main impact Wikimedia Africa Great lakes has on community is that it has promoted the culture of reading and writing among community members especially amongst the youth. This is demonstrated by the number of articles read and written on Wikipedia Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, French and English which has risen in these two years. As Wikimedians organized various events and other activities which have attracted and retained volunteer community which is growing day by day. Another demonstration is the results of the survey conducted where 87% indicated that they would wish to be contributors and more that 300 people shared their contact information for follow up.