Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Voices of Change:Documenting African Women Activists for International Women’s Day (ID: 23759558)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
The "Voice of Change: Documenting African Women Activists and Politics for International Women's Day" campaign was designed to improve the representation of African women activists and political leaders across Wikimedia platforms. The project focused on article creation, translation into local languages, Wikidata development, and content improvement.
The project achieved the include the following objectives: Increased the visibility of African women activists and political leaders. Promoted multilingual access to knowledge through local-language translations. Improved Wikimedia content quality through article creation and expansion. Strengthened wikidata coverage and structured knowledge. Built the capacity of new and existing Wikimedia contributors.
The campaign significantly increased the availability of information on African women activists and political figures. The translation of 566 articles improved access to knowledge in local languages, while Wikidata contributions enhanced the discoverability and interconnectedness of information across Wikimedia projects.
Project Impact Report
Activities Implemented
The project successfully delivered a series of capacity-building initiatives designed to increase the representation of African women activists and women in politics across Wikimedia platforms while strengthening the participation of women and youth in the Wikimedia movement.
Key activities carried out included:
Virtual Capacity-Building Training Sessions: A series of online workshops equipped women and youth with practical skills in Wikipedia editing, Wikidata contribution, article creation, referencing, and Wikimedia policies. Participants gained the confidence and technical knowledge needed to become active contributors.
International Women's Day Edit-a-thons:The project organized edit-a-thons in celebration of International Women's Day, bringing together volunteers to create new articles and improve existing content on African women activists, women leaders, and women in politics on the English Wikipedia.
English Wikipedia Article Creation and Improvement: Participants collectively created and enhanced numerous Wikipedia articles, improving the quality, accuracy, and visibility of content related to notable African women whose achievements were previously underrepresented.
Wikidata Item Creation and Enhancement:Contributors created new Wikidata items and improved existing records by adding structured data on African women activists. This strengthened the discoverability and interoperability of information across Wikimedia projects.
Translation into Local Languages: Selected English Wikipedia articles were translated into Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, expanding access to knowledge for local language communities and promoting linguistic diversity within Wikimedia projects.
Structured Mentorship and Community Support: New contributors received ongoing mentorship, technical guidance, and peer support following the training sessions and edit-a-thons. This helped improve editor retention, encouraged continued participation, and strengthened contributors' confidence.
Community Engagement and Partnerships: The project fostered collaboration with local communities and partner organizations to promote participation, expand outreach, and build a more sustainable network of Wikimedia contributors.
The activities significantly contributed to reducing the knowledge gap on African women by increasing the availability and quality of information about women activists and women in politics across Wikipedia and Wikidata. The project also strengthened the capacity of women and youth to contribute meaningfully to open knowledge, expanded multilingual content through translations into Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, and fostered a more inclusive and sustainable Wikimedia community through mentorship and collaborative engagement.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:VOC;_Document_African_Women_Activist_2026
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1d3GlY-PLK8pqLWqGgpGLC9LzyB6LOnqw?usp=drive_link
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: Through this project, we aim to learn how to effectively increase the visibility of African women activists on Wikimedia platforms and support women contributors to participate confidently and sustainably. The main learning objectives are: 1. Content Creation and Quality
- How does pre-research, source curation, and structured support affect the quality, completeness, and notability of Wikipedia articles on African women activists?
- What types of content (biographies, structured data, media files) are most successfully created and maintained by participants?
2. Participant Engagement and Capacity
- How do training workshops, mentorship, and follow-up support influence new and existing women contributors’ confidence and skills in Wikipedia and Wikidata editing?
- Which strategies are most effective for retaining women contributors after the main activities, especially for participants with limited prior experience?
3. Impact of International Women’s Day as a Campaign Anchor
- How does linking content creation to International Women’s Day affect participation, motivation, and community engagement?
- Does framing the campaign around a global event help participants connect local knowledge (African women activists) to broader public awareness and recognition?
4. Inclusion and Accessibility
- How effective are the inclusive approaches (small groups, online support, assisted editing, mentorship) in enabling participation of women with special needs or from underrepresented communities?
- What additional barriers do women participants face, and what interventions are most effective in addressing them?
5. Community and Partnership Models
- How do partnerships with women-focused and youth organizations influence recruitment, participation, and sustained contribution?
- Which collaboration models generate the strongest engagement and long-term knowledge contributions?
Collecting and analyzing data on these questions, through participant feedback, monitoring edits, tracking contributions, and documenting experiences will help us understand what works, identify gaps, and improve future campaigns for bridging gender and geographic knowledge gaps on Wikimedia platforms.
The project provided valuable insights into effective approaches for increasing the visibility of African women activists on Wikimedia platforms while strengthening the capacity of women contributors. We found that providing participants with pre-researched topics, reliable source materials, and structured editing guidance significantly improved the quality and completeness of articles created on Wikipedia and the accuracy of Wikidata contributions. Combining content creation with Wikidata editing and local language translations also enabled participants to contribute in multiple ways based on their interests and skills.
Training sessions were essential in building participants' confidence, particularly among new editors.
Using International Women's Day as the campaign theme proved to be a strong motivator. The global significance of the event increased participation, encouraged collaboration, and helped participants connect local stories of African women activists to a broader international audience.
The project's inclusive approach through virtual participation, small-group support, and one-on-one mentorship made it easier for individuals from diverse backgrounds and varying experience levels to contribute. However, challenges such as internet connectivity, access to reliable devices, and varying digital literacy levels highlighted the need for continued technical support and flexible participation models.
Partnerships with community groups and existing Wikimedia networks also played an important role in participant recruitment and engagement. These learnings will inform future initiatives by strengthening mentorship structures, expanding partnerships, improving accessibility, and continuing to integrate multilingual and structured data contributions to achieve more sustainable community growth and content impact.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
Internet connectivity issues
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
We will share the project learning on Wikipedia Diff blog and Wikimedia User Group Whatsapp community with wikimedians.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 45 | 71 | |
| Number of editors | 45 | 37 | |
| Number of organizers | 3 | 3 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 300 | 18 | 14 |
| Wikimedia Commons | |||
| Wikidata | 100 | 109 | 171 |
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | 566 | 75 | |
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
1038000
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
750
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)