Africa Environment/2023 Final Report

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AKI Africa Environment drive 2023

This pages documents the AKI Africa Environment WikiFocus 2023.

The Africa Environment WikiFocus took place from March 3 to April 30, 2023. The project was conceptualised and run by Wiki In Africa (WIA) and Wikimedia Usergroup Côte d'Ivoire (WMUG CI) as the African Environment / Wangari Mathaai Day portion of the 3-part African Knowledge Initiative (AKI).

The following report is the full and final account by the Wiki In Africa (www.wikiinafrica.org) team of the impact of the project and their activities to achieve the project.

Executive Summary[edit]

The bi-lingual (English and French) Africa Environment WikiFocus was centrally organised online around the Africa Environment portal on Meta. Activities took place across Africa through online activities, and the on-the-ground activities of 16 microgrant-funded communities. These communities hosted over 28 events in 13 Africa countries. The 16 communities (17 chosen, 1 withdrawal) were selected by a 7 member volunteer jury from 61 applications. The 17 selected applications for the Africa Environment WikiFocus received microgrants that collectively totalled 20,125 USD.

Wiki In Africa hosted 3 training webinars, 2 office hours and 3 local organiser get-togethers (the mid-term organised by WMUG CI) to support skills acquisition, experience sharing, provide visibility and support the activities of the micro-grantees. There were 3 external partners and the contributions of each community and individual participants were reinforced through the compilation of 51 lists, reports and references in both English and French and 12 red lists collated in a centralised area.

The activities of participants at the local micro-grant funded events saw the total contribution to the Wikimedia projects:

Below are featured articles created during the Africa Environment WikiFocus from each of the micro-grant funded communities:

  1. Climate_change_in_Botswana
  2. Province_de_Bujumbura_Mairie
  3. Climat_du_Tchad
  4. Effets_du_changement_climatique_sur_les_écosystèmes
  5. Climat_de_la_République_démocratique_du_Congo
  6. Organic_fertilizer
  7. Climate_change_and_food_security_in_Africa
  8. Changement_climatique_au_Kenya
  9. Movement nke Ndị Ntorobịa
  10. Raoul_du_Toit
  11. Ihe mgbaru ọsọ mmepe na-adịgide adịgide 13
  12. Ikiyaga_cya_Bunyonyi
  13. Mabadiliko_ya_tabianchi_Mashariki_ya_Kati_na_Afrika_Kaskazini
  14. Afrika ƒe yame ƒe nɔnɔme
  15. Deforestation_in_Zimbabwe

Final Report[edit]

Context and goals[edit]

The project's goal was to encourage Wikipedians to contribute knowledge, visuals and data to the Wikimedia projects that significantly add to, and greatly augment the existing knowledge about Climate, Climate Change and Environmental threats across Africa.

"I also got to learn about different individuals because we worked with environmentalists and climate change individuals that are fighting to protect environments and help keep the environment safe, ranging from a 20-year-old who initiated the school strike initiative. She's from Osun State. The 'school strike' initiative has to do with the fact that every Friday, they will skip classes to go and do a kind of demonstration, telling our governments how to help protect our environments. Every Friday, they come together and do a kind of demonstration. So, it's very interesting. It's very interesting."

-- Obiageli Ezeilo (Local Organiser, Nigeria)


The Global Organising team focused on encouraging and supporting local (Africa-focused) Wikimedian communities to organise training, contribution, or translation events. The mechanism to ensure this happened was through the provision of micro-grants to communities wishing to participate in the WikiFocus.

Context[edit]

This is the final report of Africa Environment WikiFocus – the 2nd project that was initiated by the Africa Knowledge Initiative (AKI) to draw content around the Wangari Mathaai / Africa Environment Day (3rd March).
In late January 2023, the African Knowledge Initiative (AKI) working group tasked Wiki In Africa (WIA) and Wikimedia Community User Group Côte d’Ivoire (WMUG IC) with the challenge of driving content creation and contribution using the visibility offered through the African Union’s Wangari Maathai Day (3rd of March).
The Africa Environment WikiFocus was a combination of proposals presented by Wiki In Africa and Wikimedia Usergroup Côte d’Ivoire (WMUG CI). The AKI Working Group suggested that the two organisers work in partnership to create a continental solution to the call. We agreed, but this further shortened the timeline and delayed the start date as a new project was negotiated, tasks apportioned between partners, and agreed before being shared with the Project Owners.
This report documents the unfolding of the Africa Environment WikiFocus as conducted and actioned by the Wiki In Africa team. We assume that the Wikimedia Usergroup Côte d’Ivoire (WMUG CI) will publish their own report as to their process and impact.

Project focus[edit]

The Africa Environment WikiFocus encouraged Wikimedia and other communities to contribute content related to Africa’s Climate to the Wikimedia projects from March 2023.
The key project activities facilitated and supported a general call and the specific support of up to 11 local WM Usergroups and Volunteer Groups (we achieved 17, including one that later withdrew) who received microfunding through an open call. The microgrants sponsored training and contribution events by micrograntees. The contribution events focused on creating or updating existing articles relating to the climates of Africa, and the impact of climate change and environmental issues or threats faced by countries and communities across Africa. :Content was added using existing data held in partnering or openly accessible researched reports and data sources. External partnerships and alliances were sought to maximise access to validated source materials, quality visual evidence, and ensure the overall visibility for the project.

Activity period[edit]

The internal preparation period was from early January to end February. The project's public launch date was the 3rd March 2023, with Wikimedia community activities to happen during the month of March and later extended to April. The project officially closed in early-May with final report due by mid-June.

Key links[edit]



Final Outcomes achieved against Key Project Indicators[edit]

Activity Key Project Indicator Expectation Outcome achieved Notes
Contributions Create single coordinated space on Meta 1 portal 1 portal - homepage translated by WM community into 8 languages 1 portal - created by Anthere and maintained mainly by Wiki In Africa with excellent design support from Paul Bouaffou.
Contributions Local communities actively contribute to WikiDrive 12 communities 17 financed (1 canceled) across 13 African countries + several unfinanced events and individual participation The table of micrograntees.
Contributions Research and collate a list of reports, resources intelligence, data, and materials 10 sources 51 links in both English and French The full list.
Contributions Create and validate lists for participants to engage with 3 priority article lists 12 lists collated in centralised area View the full batch of article lists.
Contributions Contribution events conducted by communities to add local knowledge and data 20 Contribution events conducted by at least 12 communities At least 28 contribution events held by 16 local communities who received microgrants. Table of anticipated events.
Microgranting Receive an vet microgrant applications for Africa Environment WikiFocus 20 applications 61 applications View the full list of applications.
Microgranting Grants administered and dispatched 12 grants 17 applications approved

16 microgrants dispensed

1 withdrawn, microgrant (reimbursed)

Full list of accepted grants here.
Microgranting Grant communities documentation and reports 12 grant reports 16 grant reports recieved Microgrant reports links.
Partnerships Partner with external Climate and Environment focused organisations 3 3 official external partners


1. Africa Tech Radio

2. WoMin

3. West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)

Partnerships Mentor and coach new communities through micro-grant and event contribution process 4 communities 8 events held to support all 16 communities and additional contributors 3 Training sessions

3 Event celebrations

The above can be viewed on Africa Environment playlist on YouTube

(with exception of mid-term session organised by WMUG CI)

+

2 Office Hours held:

- 14 Feb (English)

- 23 Feb (French)

Partnerships / WikiAfrica Alliances High number of contributors are new to Wikimedia projects (encouraged to join through Wiki Loves Africa drive) 40% 57% 57% of users joining after start date of Wiki Loves Africa 2023
WikiAfrica Alliances Additional contributions as photographic and media evidence of Climate through Wiki Loves Africa 2022 8,000 files 12,961 media entries to Wiki Loves Africa (there are 13,431 total media submissions) Final statistics available on wikiloves x on toolforge + Commons category
WikiAfrica Alliances Communities contributing to Wiki Loves Africa’s Climate & Weather theme 20 communities Hosted events were held by 29 registered communities in 24 countries.

46 countries contributed media to the contest.

Participating Communities found here.

Country statistics available on wikiloves x on toolforge

WikiAfrica Alliances WikiAfrica Hour focused episode on Climate and the Wikimedia movement 1.5 hours long 1:30:17

WikiAfrica hour hosted launch episode

View the launch episode.
WikiAfrica Alliances Campaign run through the ISA Tool to contribute structured data to images relating to Climate Change, and at 1 campaign 1 campaign Tell Us About Her: Women on the Frontline Climate Wiki Loves Women ran the Tell Us About Her: Women on the Frontline Climate - as part of the WikiGap campaign - March 2023
WikiAfrica Alliances ISA Campaign provides micro-contributions to description of Wikimedia Commons files 30,000 micro-contributions 43,835 micro contributions to 2,076 images by 28 users View the results.
Impact achieved: Outreach Dashboard Campaign[edit]
Link to Outreach Dashboard (as recorded 23 May)
Metric recorded Impact Notes
# programs recorded 17
# editors 400
# words added 2,740,000
# references added 2,570
# articles created 3,530
# articles edited 7,300
# article views 4,610,000
# commons uploads 4,660 Separate to Wiki Loves Africa
# wikidata total revisions 11,700
# wikidata items created 321
# wikidata claims created 3,380
# wikidata descriptions added 1,010
# wikidata labels added 989
# wikidata interwiki links added 322
NB: not all local organizers managed their dashboard well, so the above figures might include some contributions that are unrelated to Africa Environment.

Key Activities[edit]

See Results and Best Practices

In the final, accepted proposal, the project partners committed to the following activities to ensure that the project is activated and achieved the expected outcomes and Key Project Indicators as predicted in the final proposal. Below is more detail of why these activities were undertaken, what the impact was, and what lessons were learnt during the process.
A Results and Best Practices page has been created and is being regularly updated by the Wiki In Africa project team to ensure all the below actions are catalogued in more detail.

Create Central Portal[edit]

See Portal page and Results and best practices section

Intention

Creating and maintaining a centralised, bi-lingual portal (on Meta) that provides clear pathways for individuals or organisers to participate in the drive.

Actions

Story

Translation system set up to ensure bi-lingual support. Main home page resulted in translation into the 28 languages (7 languages fully translated, 19 partially):
The portal page was created by Florence Devouard (User:Anthere). The content was updated and maintained mainly by Wiki In Africa (268 edits) with excellent design support from WMUG CI's Paul Bouaffou (User:Kod B).

Result

  • Page views: 73,629
  • Median: 761
  • Daily average: 25
  • Edits: 268
  • Editors: 18

Impact

The bi-lingual project page was an essential tool to keep track of a massively complex contribution event. The simplicity of the design managed to keep all organisers, contributors, and participants updated as to what was happening when, provide resources for all to use that included reference links, communications support, events and training opportunities, etc.
It was essential to the success of the project.

Facilitate Microgrant For Contribution Events[edit]

See Microgrant and Results and Best practices section

Intention

Approach Africa's Wikimedia Communities with a Call to Participate. This initial call asked for communities to apply for micro-grants to host events that focused on Climate and Environment topics during the Africa Environment WikiFocus period.

Actions

The Call (lead: WMUG CI)
  • A bi-lingual call was crafted and released.
  • A list of platforms to release the call was compiled and shared.
  • The call submission page was created, translated and published.
The selection process (lead: WMUG CI)
  • A call for volunteer jury members to assess the applications
  • Criteria for selection was negotiated and implemented
  • Final Jury Members were selected and tasked with their selection
  • Final list of accepted micro grants was released.
Micro-grant dispersement (lead: WIA)
  • Good standing with Wikimedia Foundation confirmation process
  • Onboarding and grantee management
  • Contractual agreements
  • Money transfer
  • Grantee activity tracking

Stories

The Call for Applications and Approval Process
The call for applications and jury process was originally assigned to the WMUG CI. However this became a full partnership activity with both WIA and WMUG CI working on getting the Call for Micro-granting out and ensuring that the criteria was suited to the call and applied to the final selection of grantees.
The Micro-grant process
The Micro-grant process was an entirely new system and experience for the Wiki In Africa team. Once approved, the micro-grants required several key administrative tasks to ensure that both parties were covered and that money could be transferred. This resulted in information acquisition, contract creation, approval and a secure space for signatures, invoicing, document compilation and management, international payments – which were unexpectedly arduous and fraught with pitfalls – and then payment tracking, amount tracking, confirmation and proof of funds arriving with beneficiaries, etc.
NB: The approved application from Malawi was withdrawn due to a change of circumstances and lack of time. The initial part payment to Malawi was returned in full.
Delayed payments
Money from the AKI Working Group (Project Funders) arrived late and via alternative partners, after many requests from WIA. This was particularly an issue since WIA had to regrant some of the money it had not yet received, and had no contract with the Project Funders.
Some payments were delayed due to requirements from the South African Reserve Bank that had not been foreseen.
  • The South Africa Reserve Bank blocked most of the transfer to Local Organizers.
  • The reasons for rejecting the majority (but not all) of loaded beneficiaries was provided by the Wiki In Africa's bank's foreign exchange division. They claimed that, due to international exchange controls, there should have been a bulk application for permission to transfers all the amounts, which would take 6-8 weeks to be approved by the SARB. To do the bulk application so late in an already delayed process would have further delayed the remittence of funds to the micrograntees.
  • This required money to be transferred by unplanned means. This took a lot of time and energy from the Wiki In Africa team. Some money had to be transferred from personal accounts to go through. The consequences (beside lot’s of time and energy from all parties) was that funds to the Local Organizers was delayed, sometimes delaying or halting the operations proceed. :It also cost a lot of bank fees.
  • One transfer was rejected due to the Local Organizer providing an incorrect account number. Loss of time and bank fees.
  • One transfer to a Nigeria account got « lost » for about 2 months. It took much pressure on the side of the South Africa bank to get the Nigerian Bank to finally credit the beneficiary.

Result

Microgrants
The call for applications was released on February 4. The submission deadline was February 28.
  • 62 applications were submitted. See Category:Africa Environment/Microfunding/Request
  • Criteria being resolved and communicated
  • 17 being selected representing 13 countries
  • Care was taken to ensure equality across regional and languages, and to approve applications from both mature, experienced teams and rather newer, inexperienced teams (per request of the Project Owners)
  • A table of communications platforms for release was compiled and the posting tracked.
Jury process
The Open Call for Volunteer Jury members resulted in:
  • 49 applications being submitted
  • 7 members were selected
  • The project team decided to approve more applications after the initial jury review and selection process
Micro-grant management
  • 17 information packs compiled
  • 17 contracts compiled, sent and signed securely using DocuSign
  • 32 successful payments made
  • 13 payments rejected

Impact

The micro-grant process was central to the success of the project. Although Wiki In Africa regularly support with Fiscal Sponsorship we had not processed grants on this scale. It was not easy and there were many lessons learnt. Central to these was the administrative processes that were instigated to ensure the process was as efficient as possible and that we could protect all parties involved. The delays with money were mitigated by coming up with the provision of short term, small amounts to tide over those grantees who could not carry the costs until they received the final amounts.
The overall experiences of the micro-grantees – many of them entirely new to Wikimedia administrative expectations and processes – can be found at the end of this document.

Partnership research, approach and facilitation[edit]

See AE WikiFocus partners

Also view the following Results and Best practices sections:

Intention

Approach existing Africa-based Climate and Environmental Organisations and NGOs, and academic and research institutions to broaden the project’s base of topic experts, access to up-to-date intelligence, and an existing community of activists and invested stakeholders and students.

Actions

  • Create a database of potential partners, track approach and success
  • Establish a contact strategy for different partners
  • Create the template letter to approach potential partners
  • Translation of letter for bilingual approach
  • Contact potential partners, follow up with 2 reminder emails
  • Negotiate successful partnerships
  • Collect logos and materials and add to portal page

Story

In order to ensure quality, researched content and experts are involved, and the Wikimedia network expansion, the teams across all levels (from AKI Working Group to local community teams) will endeavour to partner with existing Africa-based Climate and Environmental Organizations and NGOs, and academic and research institutions.
The partnership prospecting task was initially assigned to WMUG CI as a partner task, however the whole task seems to have been transferred to the Wiki In Africa team.
Due to the very short timeline and project delays and stresses, it was challenging to get traction from any content and network partnerships requests made in the month before and during the drive itself. Similarly, many local teams reported of the difficulty in engaging with local partners to support the content produced by their participants (many of which were very new). Some of this was due to the short timeline, and in other cases it was an inability to navigate a data or content partnership with government or academic institutions in such short timeframes (as their internal processes are much longer).

Result

In total we reached out to exactly 35 names potential partners where 27 were contacted (view link to all potential partners), 8 were not contacted because of missing their contact details
  • Partners OnWiki list: 2 were contacted directly but we received no response from either
  • Partners OffWiki list: 25 potential partners were contacted 3 times. We had 2 positive responses: Womin and WASCAL
  • Media partner: We also partnered with Africa Tech Radio for the launch event where Anthony Ibe hosted the special edition of WikiAfrica Hour.

Impact

The severe setbacks to the project caused by the delays in approval and contracts from the AKI Working Group ensured that this aspect to the project could not achieve its full potential. There was no tangible impact as only 2 partnerships were secured, and one of these added to the content or resources. There were resources added that were issued by the AKI Working Group organisations, but these were researched and added by the WIA team and not provided by the Working Group members. If more lead time had been possible, then it would have undoubtedly been a more impactful aspect of the project. However, in this iteration, given the extreme time pressure, it was not possible to fully explore all the possibilities.
That being said, we did take considerable effort and resources in approaching potential partners to try to achieve this goal (we can provide the list and approach bi-lingual letters on request). The lack of partnership impact did not impair the project however, as Florence, the Wiki In Africa team and others managed to research enough freely licenced material to support the event and its participants.

Compile research, content and tools[edit]

See Resources and Red lists and links to Africa Climate task force

Also view the following Results and Best practices sections:

Intention

Use the Africa Environment Portal as the central hub to collate all information, data, statistics, reports, papers, policy documents, etc relating to the topic, including tables of red lists across Wikimedia projects.

Actions

  • Compile a table of Climate of Country X
  • Compile and display red lists and translation lists

Story

The anticipated resources from partners did not happen as expected (read above). Florence, the Wiki In Africa team and others managed to research enough freely licenced material to support the event and its participants. One of the external partners provided researched reports, and reports and resources were added that had been published online by the AKI Working Group organisations, but these were researched and added by the WIA team and not provided by the Working Group members.

Result

  1. Set-up of a full page of curated resources in French and English. Some of the resources came from partners : Africa Environment/Resources
  2. Organization of 3 training sessions. One was dedicated to Improving Wikipedia’s coverage of climate change, one was a dashboard training session and one was a wiki data training: Africa Environment/Resources. All those sessions were recorded and the record + material were published (and stay available). The first webinar is available in 4 languages.
  3. Curation of a list of red-links about Climate Change in Africa countries in English: w:Wikipedia:WikiProject Climate change/Africa task force/Climate of
  4. Curation of a list of red-links about Climate Change in Africa countries in French: w:fr:Wikipédia:WikiProjet Changement Climatique/Groupe de Travail Afrique/Climat de
  5. Curation of a list of African Biographies to write : Africa Environment/List Africa Biographies
  6. Creation of a list of articles to translate in several regions North Africa - East Africa - West Africa - Southern Africa - Central Africa - South Africa
  7. Promotion of the WikiProject Climate change task force, with lists : w:Wikipedia:WikiProject Climate change/Africa task force

Impact

At the beginning of the project there were (Feb 24), exactly TWO articles dedicated to Climate in the country, and 14 articles on English Wikipedia dedicated to Climate Change in an African country. See the current status of the all red links on the English Wikipedia: Africa task force/Climate of and all red links on the French Wikipedia: Wikipédia:WikiProjet Changement Climatique/Groupe de Travail Afrique/Climat de
Other resources shared
  • Documents and Reference Materials (peer reviewed)
  • 20 important global reports (11 in English, 9 in French)
  • Partner material from WOMIN material (GENDER)
  • 3 reports in English
  • Country specific resources and reference reports
  • 11 reports (8 in English, 3 in French)
  • Media, blogs, articles, tribunes, and such material (non-peer reviewed material)
  • 1 in Arabic, 4 in French and 13 in English
Content updated and created
Through the contributions from the local micro-grant funded events, the total contribution to the Wikimedia projects was:
  • 17 programs recorded on Outreach Dashboard
  • 400 editors recorded as contributing via Outreach Dashboard
  • 72,740,000 words added
  • 10,830 articles created or augmented (3,530 added + 7,300 edited)
  • 2,579 references added
  • 4,610,000 views of the amended or created articles
  • 4,660 uploads to Commons (excluding Wiki Loves Africa contributions)
  • 11,700 total revisions on WikiData
  • 6,022 elements created on WikiData (see detail below)
Samples of content produced
The Wiki In Africa organizers thought the following were good examples of the articles produced as part of the events hosted by micrograntees:
  1. Climate Change in Botswana
  2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_de_Bujumbura_Mairie
  3. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climat_du_Tchad
  4. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effets_du_changement_climatique_sur_les_écosystèmes
  5. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climat_de_la_République_démocratique_du_Congo
  6. https://gur.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_fertilizer
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_food_security_in_Africa
  8. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changement_climatique_au_Kenya
  9. https://ig.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_nke_Nd%E1%BB%8B_Ntorob%E1%BB%8Ba
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_du_Toit
  11. https://ig.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihe_mgbaru_%E1%BB%8Ds%E1%BB%8D_mmepe_na-adịgide_adịgide_13
  12. https://rw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiyaga_cya_Bunyonyi
  13. https://sw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabadiliko_ya_tabianchi_Mashariki_ya_Kati_na_Afrika_Kaskazini
  14. https://ee.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_%C6%92e_yame_%C6%92e_n%C9%94n%C9%94me
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Zimbabwe

Organise and publicise Africa Environment[edit]

See Event and Communication for the AE project’'

See also in Results and Best practices:

Intention

Launch a campaign on social media, with news, publicity and other materials to ensure maximum visibility of the event for increased participation and public awareness.

Actions

Brand and messaging creation
  • Logo and visual language, including brand colours created
  • Social media materials created
  • Messaging crafted and compiled to support local organisers
  • Communications support compiled and shared with local organisers
Internal communications
External Communications

Story

The Central Site Notices provided a lot of traffic to the projects. The portal page information reports over 73,000 page views since February 2023. We cannot assign all those to the Central Site Notice, but we do know that this shows far more than the number of participants (400 editors recorded by Outreach Dashboard). Social media has also created a stir and the strategy was to provide visibility support for the local organisers, but many on the local organising team did not have the skills or the capacity to push their own social media campaign, although one of the more experienced organisers did manage to put notices on Diff – read it here: Spreading Environmental Insights in the Igbo Community – Africa Environment WikiFocus by Kingsley Nkem

Impact

Facilitate maximum visibility through WikiAfrica Alliance[edit]

Intention

Ensure maximum visibility for the project through strategic alliances with existing projects such as Wiki Loves Africa, WikiAfrica Hour, ISA Campaign.

Actions

  • WikiAfrica Hour is a monthly live open discussion about Wikimedia related matters through an African lens.
  • Wiki Loves Africa 2023 contest was held from March 1 to April 30 under the theme Climate & Weather.
  • Wiki Loves Women's Tell Us About Her ISA Campaign for Women's Month of March focused this year on images representing Women on the Frontline of Climate.

Result

WikiAfrica Hour: Special Launch episode: Africa Environment
The Africa Environment launch event was on WikiAfrica Hour with guest host Anthony Ibe from Africa Tech Radio. The guests included:
  • Tracey Anyango - Programmes Officer, Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action, Kenya
  • Tatjana Baleta - Wikimedia Visiting Fellow for Climate, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, UK
  • And the Africa Environment WikiFocus team! The full episode can be found on YouTube at this link
Wiki Loves Africa 2023
  • 2 additional Africa Environment prizes were added to the existing prize categories to encourage the submission of video or photo essay that represented or documented the impact of climate change
  • Overall the contest resulted in 12,961 media entries by 784 contestants
  • The jury process began and is ongoing. Prize winners to be announced in August.
ISA Campaign: Tell Us About Her – Women on the Frontline of Climate
  • 43,835 micro contributions to 2,076 images by 28 users

Impact

These alliances ensured that the project was made visible to larger audiences beyond the climate-focused or Africa-only wikimedia communities.

Create a program of Implementing Partner events[edit]

See WikiAfrica Hour/Episodes and Events

See also Results and Best practices section:

Intention

A series of events to coordinate and support local organisers as well as drive visibility.

Actions

  • 2 office hours – one in English + one in French
  • 3 micro-grant funded local organisers focused connection events:
  1. Launch event on WikiAfrica Hour (organised by Wiki In Africa team)
  2. Mid-point check in and experience sharing session (organised by WMUG CI)
  3. Closing event with results, impact and the local organiser perspectives (organised by Wiki In Africa team)
  • 3 Skills development and training online sessions for all participants through
  1. Africa Environment WikiFocus: Improving Wikipedia articles on Climate Change by Su-Laine Brodsky
  2. Africa Environment WikiFocus: Outreach Dashboard Training by Euphemia Uwandu
  3. Africa Environment WikiFocus: Wikidata Training by Yamen Bousrih

Impact

Online training and events analytics (analytics 14 June)
Youtube Playlist link
Date Title Viewing links YouTube Views
3 March 2023 WikiAfrica Hour #22: Africa Environment Launch 186
10 March 2023 Africa Environment WikiFocus: Improving Wikipedia articles on Climate Change by Su-Laine Brodsky 247
16 March 2023 Africa Environment WikiFocus Outreach Dashboard Training 181
29 March 2023

(made public 15 May)

Africa Environment WikiFocus: Wikidata Training by Yamen Bousrih (Tunisia) 31
16 May 2023 Africa Environment WikiFocus 2023: Closing ceremony 17

Facilitate the reporting and documentation of all events[edit]

See Results of Micrograntees and Results and Best Practices

Intention

Assist all local event organisers, and individual participants

Actions

Facilitate and support the use and management of campaign on Outreach Dashboard

Result

All micro-grantees used the campaign dashboard with various degrees of success. For many the dashboard was entirely new. With this in mind, some of the micro-grantees have not yet 'cleaned' up their campaigns, i.e. taken out articles created or edited during the contest period by participants that do not relate to the subjects of Climate or Environment.

Impact

Review detailed status of micro-grantee reporting here.

Create final report on project impact[edit]

See Results and Best Practices

Intention

Collate all documentation from local organisations, and individual participation, collate all on-wiki metrics and social media campaign analytics.

Actions

Compile and collate all statistics and contribution data from all the contributions, actions and

Result

Read this final report and results and best practices page for a full run down of this project.

Impact

You are reading all about it ;-)

Additional project actions by Wiki In Africa[edit]

  • Project facilitation (implementation, liaison and community engagement) by new staff member for Wiki In Africa assigned tasks, organiser support and participation and event facilitation
  • Communications facilitation, distribution and external visibility across both languages
  • Translation of all communications into French

Examples of event pictures[edit]

  • How to contribute to Wikimedia from Zimbabwe
    How to contribute to Wikimedia from Zimbabwe
  • Physical meeting of Rwanda going green
    Physical meeting of Rwanda going green
  • Green Rwanda
    Green Rwanda
  • Planting trees
    Planting trees
  • Urban wetlands Rwanda Group Photo
    Urban wetlands Rwanda Group Photo
  • Event on Transforming Knowledge in the Igbo community by spreading Environmental insights through Translation
    Event on Transforming Knowledge in the Igbo community by spreading Environmental insights through Translation
  • Mobile editing during session at Unzik
    Mobile editing during session at Unzik
  • Campaigning
    Campaigning
  • Wiki for senior citizens network in Nigeria
    Wiki for senior citizens network in Nigeria
  • Online session Wiki for senior citizens network in Nigeria
    Online session Wiki for senior citizens network in Nigeria
  • Photo de famille in Guinea Conakry
    Photo de famille in Guinea Conakry
  • DRC Africa Environment
    DRC Africa Environment
  • Lunch in RdC
    Lunch in RdC
  • Photo de famille atelier Africa Environnement 2023 à l'université de Dschang - Cameroun
    Photo de famille atelier Africa Environnement 2023 à l'université de Dschang - Cameroun
  • Training session with Minette in Cameroun
    Training session with Minette in Cameroun
  • Event in Burundi
    Event in Burundi
  • Participants to a panel discussion in Botswana
    Participants to a panel discussion in Botswana
  • Second session in Botswana
    Second session in Botswana
  • Activities in Ghana
    Activities in Ghana
  • Activities in Ghana
    Activities in Ghana

Financial Report of Wiki In Africa activities[edit]

Due to the global organiser partnership, Wiki In Africa was assigned the following approved packet amounts (in USD) to conduct the Africa Environment WikiFocus.
  • Packet 1: USD 9,000
  • Packet 2: USD 22,500
  • Packet 3: USD 2,500

Total approved amount: USD 34,000

Below is the full financial account of all the Wiki In Africa assigned activities to ensure the Africa Environment WikiFocus happened.
Budget packet Activity Category SUM of Amount (ZAR) SUM of Amount (USD)
Packet 1: AKI Communications: Media List R1,390.00 $80.23
Communications: Staff R40,000.00 $2,202.10
Communications: Translation R2,982.60 $172.16
Office expenses R12,000.00 $660.63
Packet 1 bank fees R3,600.00 $198.66
Project analysis and reporting R20,000.00 $1,101.05
Project Facilitation R37,320.30 $2,035.48
Project Financial Administration R30,000.00 $1,651.57
Project Management R20,000.00 $1,101.05
Packet 1: AKI Total R167,292.90 $9,202.93
Packet 2: AKI Micro-funding: Financial fees R14,982.36 $835.85
Micro-funding: Grant payment R377,212.93 $20,688.36
Packet 2: AKI Total R392,195.29 $21,524.22
Packet 3: AKI Packet 3 bank fees R700.00 $38.54
WLA Prize #1 R37,000.00 $2,036.94
WLA Prize #2 R22,000.00 $1,211.15
Packet 3: AKI Total R59,700.00 $3,286.63
Grand Total R619,188.19 $34,013.78
A more detailed version of the above financial report can be accessed here (access request required).

Impact of the project on Wikimedians across Africa[edit]

Local organisers share their learnings[edit]

Watch the full interview with local organisers here

During the African Environment WikiFocus Closing Celebration we asked 5 local organisers to share their experiences by asking them the following 4 questions:

1. What did you learn from the African Environment WikiFocus? (Qu’est que vous avez appris du projet Africa Environment WikiFocus?)

Obiageli Ezeilo (Nigeria)

"I also got to learn about different individuals because we worked with environmentalists and climate change individuals that are fighting to protect environments and help keep the environment safe, ranging from a 20-year-old who initiated the school strike initiative. She's from Osun State. The 'school strike' initiative has to do with the fact that every Friday, they will skip classes to go and do a kind of demonstration, telling our governments how to help protect our environments. Every Friday, they come together and do a kind of demonstration. So, it's very interesting. It's very interesting."

Kingsley Nkem (Nigeria)

"In fact, it was an eye-opener because I discovered the range of ecosystems, conservation efforts, and some other sustainable practises being implemented across the continent. I also got to know more about the connections between the environment and the community and the importance of preserving our natural resources, particularly in Africa. You know, it's really been an exciting one and it's really exposed me to a lot of ideas and opportunities."

2. In what way did it help to make your team grow? (En quoi a-t-il aidé à faire évoluer votre équipe?)

Sichelesile Similo Ndlovu (Zimbabwe)

"What my community did was they were happy to know that when it comes to wiki space, it’s not about editing the already existing articles about people or small things, but we can engage ourselves in big projects like this that can actually go a long way in impacting change in our country. Actually, we realise that climate change is not a topic that people talk about. It's not something that's a topic out there."

3. What brought you joy whilst being involved in the African Environment WikiFocus? (Qu’est ce qui vous a apporté de la joie lors du projet ?)

Valentin Nasibu (D R Congo)

"Because when we talk mainly about the environment, when we talk about climate change for example, we thought that there was another group of people who were there to talk about everything to do with the environment and we didn't really care, but through this campaign it's really given us this idea, this great joy of being able to help improve our environment, to provide information that is true, verifiable, that will enable everyone to preserve nature."

Valentin Nasibu (D R Congo)

"I realised that there wasn't really an article that talked about the climate or the air here, for example. So you can imagine. And today, through this campaign, my greatest joy is to see that when you type on Wikipedia: "Climate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo", you already have an article presenting the climate of the DRC. So it's a real pleasure to have articles that talk to you about climates—the climate of our capital, Kinshasa, for example—so it's a real pleasure for us."

4. Do you have a personal story that you want to share? (As-tu une histoire personnelle à partager?)

Kinglsey Nkem (Nigeria)

"We invited an expert in climate change and the environment. She is actually an environmental biologist and a lecturer in applied microbiology. So, I think I picked one or two things from what she taught us that day. I think she made a concluding statement that as man strives to provide solutions to human wants, the resources are depleted, thereby endangering the ecosystem. So, this is a very, very strong statement that, when I heard about it, reminded me that, in as much as I personally strive to meet up with my daily needs and wants, I should also bear in mind that I do put a lot of people's lives at risk. Because we live in the same environment, people surround me, and if I do not properly manage the resources within my environment, it also affects the people around me. And I think it was a very good takeaway from the experience I had, personally."

Sichelesile Similo Ndlovu (Zimbabwe)

Maybe I will need help there. The issue of getting official data, maybe from the government or from these NGOs, so that we can update the articles that are already there. I think the problem was with these hierarchies; we ended up not even getting there. So I think that was something personal; maybe I was a bit impatient, but I think the hierarchies on my side were a bit too much for me to get that information. And it was a bit of a setback. And that's why we ended up saying, "Okay, fine, maybe next time", but maybe the next time we need to know how to get there so that they understand us and what we want to do." "

Valentin Nasibu (D R Congo)

"Personally, it's been a pleasure to be able to raise people's awareness of the Wiki Environmental. Today there have been a lot of floods, especially in the DRC, in Kinshasa, where there have been a lot of deaths, in Goma recently, here in the Kahe area, and also in Kisangani, where the river is rising all the time, so taking part in this campaign also gave us the opportunity to talk to people. When it rains, for example, there's flooding because, for example, dirt has been ejected onto the gutters, preventing the water from flowing and causing serious damage. So it raised people's awareness, and in that sense, it was a really good thing for us. And above all, at one point we had already said to ourselves in the past that we weren't making any progress; well, it was mainly in relation to the deletion of articles; given that in the activity we also had new people, there were quite a few articles that had been deleted on Wikipedia, so it did give us an idea, above all, of how to rectify the situation from an organisational point of view and how to manage and manage, for example, when you have new people in a workshop, to give them, for example, tasks that are So it's really a lesson that we've been able to learn from an organisational point of view, and given that the articles on Wikipedia have been deleted."


Local organisers provide more detail in a survey[edit]

"We thank you a lot for organizing this wonderful project which left a number of people knowledge about climate change. It was an honor to be a part of it."

A bi-lingual Local Organiser survey was shared with local organisers to get feedback on their experiences. Of 16 organisers, 10 filled out the survey. (13 June 2023).

The key findings are as follows:

  • 70% reported being very satisfied with 30% as satisfied that their team participated to Africa Environment
  • When asked "What aspects of this project were most useful or valuable?" the responses were:
  • The project was very open to all Wikimedia projects. It wasn't only limited one specific platform
  • The awareness of climate change
  • Engaging with the community about the impacts of climate change panel discussion
  • la qualité de la thématique (the quality of the theme)
  • The most useful or valuable aspects of this project for me are training, guiding sessions. Learning by doing e.g: I learned a lot of things about climate change through running the project.
  • The most useful and valuable is the campaign aspect where awareness was created and reaching a wide audience.
  • The trainings and support by the organizers
  • The global organizers were good in communication
  • Training organized.
  • Tout été utile (Everything was useful)
  • The opportunity to edit on different Wikimedia platforms
  • Skills developments in participants
  • The advertising of the project and the panel discussion
  • la mobilisation au sein de la communauté (mobilising the community)
  • The organisers were very helpful and available to guide us through it all.
  • The outcome of the event worked well. We exceeded our expectations based on participant turn out, number of articles and edits realized.
  • Working with Seniors Citizens that are eager to contribute to free knowledge
  • Communication and friendly space
  • Participants were ready to contribute
  • Organisation était de taille, la communication, la disponibilité des organisateurs (The organisation was great, the communication, the availability of the organisers)

• They reported the following challenges that they came up against as organisers:

  • The challenges faced were similar projects which made it hard for us to get experienced editors to participate, Insufficient knowledge about the topic, reschedule of the activities due to lack of means.
  • Sourcing of funds to commence the project as grant funds were delayed due to unforseen circumstances encountered by the project team.
  • Some [participants] were not tech savvy and internet connectivity
  • The delay of receiving grants
  • Delay in fund
  • Difficultés d'optention des informations lieu au climat et changement climatique au niveau des organes consterné. Suppression de certaines articles que nous avons créé. Les nouveaux avait du mal à ce familiariser, à contribuer ... (Difficulties in obtaining information on climate and climate change from concerned bodies. Deletion of certain articles that we had created. Newcomers found it difficult to familiarise themselves with the site and to contribute.)
  • 90% of local organisers said they would participate in another edition of African Environment WikiFocus

Participant's share their experiences[edit]

"I am privileged and happy to be here. Thank you Wikipedia for making us (seniors) to feel belonged, important and active. I can not thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you! "

"I just want to thank everyone who participated in the Africa Environment wiki focus. and to say that this project made us know more about climate change and our role as Wikimedia youth in preserving the environment"

We felt that it was important as global organisers to find out the unfiltered experiences of the participating contributors (separated from the Local Organisers) in order to better understand and learn from their viewpoints, challenges and experiences.

"I want to do this again, sign me up! Wikipedia is a great search engine that is very considerate of the users world wide. Thank you."

5% or 23 of a potential 400 contributing editors (June 2023) filled out the bi-lingual google form that we shared on social media and the telegram group. We asked the local organisers to share the form with their communities. 82% of the respondents were English speaking, and 56% of them identified as female. The ages of the respondents was equally represented by 25-34 and 35-44 age groups (30.4% each). 39.1% claimed to have between 2-5 years of Wikimedia experience with the next largest group at 26.1% claiming 1-2 years experience and 21.7% having less than a year's experience of Wikimedia editing.

"Je n'ai pas assez d'expérience mais ma contribution en tant que géographe environnementaliste serait important pour le Wikifocus (I don't have enough experience but my contribution as an environmental geographer would be important for Wikifocus.)"

The key findings are as follows:

  • 73.9% agreed that the local edit-a-thons increased their skills so they could add content
  • 82.6% agreed that they got incredible support from the local organisers
  • 78.3% agreed that the local in-person training events were exactly what they needed to learn and be more confident
  • 52.2% agreed that their participation was valued by certificates, gifts, etc.
  • 78.3% agreed that they found the online training sessions interesting

When asked how did contributing to Africa Environment WikiFocus changed your perspective, they answered:

  • En tout (In all)
  • La contribution m'a fait évolué en termes de gain de connaissance sur l'édition de pages sur Wikipédia. (The contribution has helped me to learn more about editing pages on Wikipedia.)
  • I am conversant with how the climate changes. It's actually changes.
  • Made me realise the importance of making Africa visible and I gained new knowledge exploring and touring places.
  • I now know more about climate change and its importance.
  • Very impressive.
  • It has a positive effect on me.
  • I got to learn more about African environment.
  • I now know that a lot is being done by Africans to raise awareness about climate and environmental issues and I am challenged to join the efforts.
  • Highlights are giving instructions for me.
  • Missed information.
  • Ça m'a permis d'accroître des connaissances dans le cadre du changement climatique (It has enabled me to increase my knowledge of climate change)
  • The Africa Environment WikiFocus increased my skill.
  • Was okay
  • Perfectly okay
  • Je n'ai pas contribué (I did not contribute)
  • It widened my knowledge and exposed me to things I would never have known. I will always be appreciative to Wikipedia. Thank you so very much
  • It has sharpened my knowledge of Africa and it's environment, the effects of weather and climate conditions on our environment, how our actions and inactions can affect our environment and cause changes in climate, how weather and climate change can cause shortage in food supply, agricultural produce, draught, desertification, diseases and even death of animals.
  • Africa Environment Wiki focus changes me a lot because it's has makes me learn how to organise the project, how to report my project and to partner with others
  • In a positive way. Learning is good.
  • With more practice, it is actually fun!

The respondents reported the following negative experiences at the local in-person events:

  • 15 reported that "it was difficult to connect to the internet / Difficulté pour me connecter à internet"
  • 6 responded that "some of my articles were deleted / Certains des mes articles ont été supprimés"
  • 5 shared that "there were not enough computers for everyone / Manque d'ordinateur"
  • 5 reported that "I could not find reference material /Je n'ai pas trouvé de matériel de référence (sources)"
  • 1 reported that "My access was blocked / J’ai été bloqué"
  • 1 reported that "It turns out wiki editing is really complicated / Il s'avère que l'édition wiki est vraiment très compliquée"

The respondents reported that they face the following challenges when editing from home or outside of local Wikimedia events:

  • 13 reported that "Data is too expensive / Data pouraccéder à internet trop chère"
  • 8 responded that "Electricity supply is unpredictable / L’accès à l’électricité est fluctuante et imprévisible"
  • 5 shared that "It is hard to source citations and references / Il est difficile de trouver des sources de qualité depuis chez moi"
  • 4 reported that they "don't have the technology to edit from home / Je ne dispose pas du bon équipement pour participer depuis chez moi"
  • 2 mentioned that "Life is too busy at home / Trop àfaire à la maison"

We received a 60.9% positive response to participating in another version of African Environment WikiFocus in the future

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