Free Knowledge Africa/Strategic Plan for Free Knowledge Africa 2022 - 2024

Introduction

Free Knowledge Africa’s strategic plan outlines our central mission and the vision we have for our organization’s future and our work within the Wikimedia movement in alignment to Wikimedia 2030 vision as the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us in capturing, sharing, and enabling access to free knowledge.

Core Activities

• Promote Open Access practices in cultural and heritage institutions in Africa.
• Promote the use, contribution and increase the reach of Wikimedia projects as it pertains to gaps in African travel, geographic information, sports, cultural and tourist sites.
• Raise awareness and create a database of works that have entered into the Public Domain.
• Partner with organizations, institutions and bodies involved in African culture, travel and tourism towards showcasing its resources.
• Provide a space for people who are/will engage(d) in Wikimedia to collaborate on projects, discuss strategies, and socialize with each other.
• Generate and promote free knowledge about African culture, sports, travel and tourism.
• Develop a framework for capacity building and upskilling young and new Wikimedians and future Wikimedians in Africa.
• Educate and encourage African photographers to contribute to Wikimedia Commons.

Long Term Goals

The following are particular goals for each of the three focus areas in which we wish to work: content development, capacity building, and advocacy. It has resulted in a set of priorities and goals for Free Knowledge Africa, as well as specific operational initiatives aimed at "empowering and engaging people around emerging communities to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally." Identifying the gaps and problem statements with data and issues concerning them is one of the main priorities. We intend to start bringing in members and professional specialists in various disciplines of GLAM and Wikimedia projects from various regions and ethnic groups, as well as people from emerging communities in Africa, during the next three years. And determine with them what knowledge gaps exist inside the movement and across our continent. The following are some of the important priorities in which we will invest:

• Open Access - Advocacy efforts with cultural and knowledge institutions, as well as artists, to help make knowledge open and to encourage institutions to donate to Wikimedia.
• Advocacy in partnerships - Developing relationships with cultural and knowledge institutions to aid in the open dissemination of knowledge and to assist institutions in contributing to Wikimedia.
• Heritage documentation - Knowledge-creation activities to enrich Wikimedia projects with useful African content and resources
• Developing a knowledge base, sharing expertise, and creating a knowledge base that everyone in the movement can access over time in order to support editors' work and pursue chances to free information in their geographies for use in projects.
• Sharing success stories, case studies, and problems we face.
• One of our key goals is to help emerging community groups and institutions acquire, develop, and transmit knowledge and other educational, cultural, and historic content in the public domain or under a license that allows anyone to freely use, distribute, and modify it.
• Our strategic goal is to build new and innovative projects with growing communities for the inclusion and preservation of all types of underrepresented knowledge, including oral or non-Western knowledge resources and resourcing in important areas including advocacy, partnerships, content development, and technology.
• Our projects encourage underrepresented communities to join the Wikimedia movement to bridge the knowledge gaps about Africa on Wikimedia projects. We organize unconventional and unique styles of campaigns that support documentation of African content and are well aligned with the 2030 Movement Strategy Recommendations Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development and Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement.