Wiki In Africa/Focus
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Access all updated strategy documents on our website, in particular
Short presentation of Wiki in Africa
editWiki In Africa (www.wikiinafrica.org) is a South African registered NPO whose work across the continent.
Its mission is to:
Facilitate global access for all to open knowledge that reflects and represents the diverse cultures, peoples, biodiversities, and histories of the African continent and other previously marginalized and disenfranchised communities with the same depth and breadth as other knowledges.
To achieve this mission, it combats the digital divide across Africa through layered, strategically-focused programs that progress skills acquisition, leadership development, and community building.
Collectively the programs result in representative visual and textual content under free licenses that reflect previously skewed, misunderstood, or invisible knowledges, realities, cultures, and histories. The organisation’s core activities are geared towards activating sustainable contribution of content that relates to Africa (and similarly disadvantaged communities and populations) whose value and worth are decided by those communities and individuals. This content contributes to decolonizing knowledge and the internet.
Wiki In Africa’s activities supports the strategic goals of the Wikimedia movement. We support free expression, a free and open Internet, and the use of open licenses, and the protection of the public domain.
Thousands of participants across our projects collate, curate, and contribute content that relates to the theme of Africa and ensuring gender equity. This content presents new narratives of what ‘Africa’ and ‘gender’ really represent to African and global audiences. Access to this content by a diverse readership is assured through the contents’ integration into global knowledge platforms, such as Wikipedia.
Wiki In Africa’s activities supports the aims of the Wikimedia movement across Africa. We support free expression, a free and open Internet, and the use of open licenses and the protection of the public domain. Its beneficiaries are Readers, Students and existing and potential Wikipedians. Its target groups or audiences are the individuals and collective knowledge in Civil Society partners (content and network and educational), Wikimedia and Open aligned volunteer groups and education organisations.
Achieving the Wiki In Africa Mission (2022)
editIn light of the Theory of Change developed during 2021, the following overarching goals and objectives have been identified. The table below shows how Wiki In Africa’s goals, objectives and activities relate to its existing programmes, initiatives and actions.
Goal 1: To provide multiple ways and to reduce the barriers for individuals and groups to contribute their knowledge to the open movement and thereby reduce knowledge gaps and redress biases.
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Goal 2: building the capacity of a network of leaders across Africa, and developing communities, who are committed to boosting the open movement and reducing knowledge gaps, and redressing biases
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Wiki In Africa's strategic objectives
editSince 2016, the programs Wiki In Africa has created are designed for individuals to seize their own agency by developing the skills, creating the roles, and building the communities required to bridge the content and contribution gaps that accelerate the digital divide that plagues Africa.
To achieve the goals of the organization, the programs focus on our four key strategic objectives. These are:
- Informing, making visible, and advocating to close knowledge gaps and redress biases
- Providing multiple fun, engaging and accessible ways and formats for individuals to contribute.
- Identifying and training leaders to activate open movement projects (individual)
- Growing networks of communities that boost the open movement and reduce knowledge gaps and facilitate cross-pollination between these communities (group)
We are resolved to provide, through our programs, pathways for the silenced and ignored voices, experiences, and cultures of globally marginalized peoples to be available and accessed on global platforms. With a specific geographical focus on Africa to redress multiple imbalances and decolonise content and minds, we believe that understanding of, access to, and training in Open knowledge platforms will move the dial on the Digital Divide, for both geography and gender.
Through strategic layering that answers specific needs, Wiki In Africa has created programmes that bridge the gaping content gaps and digital skills divides. It initiates fun engaging programmes to create multiple pathways for people of varied ages, genders, backgrounds, cultures and access to resources. It has helped to build the Wikipedia communities in 23 countries across Africa by drawing people together around common goals and focusing on consistent regional in-person and online events.
Wiki In Africa exists as part of an international movement of organizations and volunteers that aims to increase the world's knowledge. This work takes place in four parts:
- Establishing, through research, the gaps in knowledge that exists on Wikipedia about each country and community in Africa and find innovative and unexpected ways of drawing this information onto Wikipedia;
- Activate, train and support a self-sustaining new generation of dedicated and proactive Wikipedian editors from across the continent that are able to generate new articles and subjects relevant to contemporary Africa by changing online behaviour and offline attitudes to knowledge,
- Activate, train and support the growth of new User Groups and Wikimedia Chapters across Africa to effectively organise, deploy and reward these new editors through national and continental activities, and
- Assist and support the upload and expansion of content that already resides in heritage, culture, news-gathering and academic institutions across Africa.
Wiki In Africa programmes address the following key areas:
- Gender-equity (contribution and content gap) in leadership training and content focuses
- Representation Gaps (Multimedia) through the activation of visual content reflecting contemporary society and cultural heritage
- Youth activation as part of a long term strategy to empower youth and ensure that open practices become normative, not the unusual or alternative practices
- Access to skills acquisition through technological solutions to Africa’s challenges.
- Community development and cohesion to ensure sustainable growth
Strategic subject focus’
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Strategic organisational policieseditDeveloping and supporting the growth of emerging communitiesedit
Actively addressing knowledge gaps and biasesedit
Active focus on diversity, inclusion, and empowermentedit
Increasing visibilityedit
Lowering barriers to contributionedit
Leveraging the mutual benefit of partnershipsedit
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Strategic priorities specific to 2022
editThe 2022 annual plan retains the focuses of the 2021 Annual Plan and expects to extend and scale these impacts into the near future. In 2022 we will become more focused on nurturing engagement, through our programs (and other Wikimedia initiatives) at every stage of the participant’s journey. Always complex and multilayered, the overarching focuses across the projects for 2022 include:
- inter-project community building,
- leadership training, and mentorship,
- training key skill groups, i.e. photographers to change the visual narrative of Africa
- fostering contribution and digital skills in the next generation,
- open movement advocacy through externally focused campaigns, and
- expanding the circle of friends and allies within the open knowledge movement.
Over 2022 the activities are centered around
Access to projects and contribution
- Ensuring projects are easy to access and engage with
- Ensuring that pathways are tiered for skills development
- Ensuring communications support the projects
Skills development:
- Training-the-trainer/teacher programs
- Leadership and organisational skills development
- Photography skills and benefits of Open
- Community development, cohesion, and networking
- Releasing Inspiring Open podcast to increase understanding and motivate engagement
- Consistent WM networking and sharing
- Collaboration and Network scaling
- Increased collaboration with WM Usergroups and Thematic groups
- Collaboration and partnership with external cultural, education and gender-equity organisations to increase impact and expand its network
Additional elements to assist with the main strategic focus’ of the programmes as described below are:
- Consultation with advisory groups
- Research and development of proposed education programmes
- Develop external funding and in-kind partnerships to expand and scale projects appropriately
- Support the WM development across Africa through regularly hosting monthly catchup meetings of the African community around curated subjects of topics chosen from within the community.
- Consistent programme assessment and reassessment for fit and impact
- Ongoing visibility, communication and advocacy campaigns.
- Organisational stability by supporting and mentoring one remote intern to support the organisation through additional tasks that include networking, communications, programme management, etc.
Strategic priorities specific to 2023-25
editPlease read Multi Year Plan 23-25