Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiForHumanRights Africa Regional Coordination (2025-26) (ID: 23542184)

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Applicant Details

Main Wikimedia username. (required)

VALENTIN NVJ

Organization

N/A

If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)

Other

Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)

WikiForHumanRights Francophone Africa Regional coordinator

Main Proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.

WikiForHumanRights Africa Regional Coordination (2025-26)

2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.

2025-11-10 - 2026-03-31

4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)

Regional (more than one country in the same continent or region) We would focus on countries that participate in the WikiForHumanRights campaign. But we would also explore new countries that might be interested in leading local activities for the campaign. These current countries include Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, DRC Congo, Gabon, Republic of Guinea, Rwanda

5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)

WikiForHumanRights

6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)

In a world where climate change, sustainability and human rights are under constant pressure, information is not just power, it is protection, empowerment, and hope. The WikiForHumanRights campaign was born from this truth. Over the past five years, it has connected thousands of Wikimedia volunteers across the globe to document climate, sustainability, and human rights knowledge on Wikimedia projects, ensuring that the stories, struggles, and victories of communities are accessible to everyone, everywhere.

But as the movement has grown, so have the challenges. The Wikimedia movement is vast, multilingual, and decentralized. Coordinating a global campaign from one central point has often meant bottlenecks, delayed support, and limited reach. In 2024, after deep consultations, the Wikimedia Foundation and community leaders recognized a bold new path forward: a movement ownership model that shifts the heart of campaign leadership into the hands of communities themselves.

This is the change we are trying to bring: a transformation from a Wikimedia Foundation facilitated campaign to a movement-led, globally connected campaign, one where regional leaders are empowered to not only mobilize regionally, but to collaborate as part of a global council that drives the campaign’s vision, strategy, and impact.

It is an ambitious change, and the stakes are high. If we succeed, we will unlock a model of leadership that is scalable, sustainable, and deeply rooted in the communities we serve. If we fail, we risk losing momentum, disengaging communities, and slowing the impact of one of the Wikimedia movement’s most powerful campaigns for climate, sustainability and human rights.

The main challenges we face are clear:

Building a new leadership structure that is truly movement-owned while ensuring smooth global coordination.
Preparing and supporting African regional coordinators to operate confidently on a global strategic level.
Ensuring that African communities especially those in Francophone and Anglophone regions have the tools, information, and mentorship needed to fully participate in and shape the future of the campaign.
Starting early enough to deliver the 2026 edition with the energy, excitement, and depth of impact our communities expect.

In order to achieve this change, we will adopt these approaches:

Igniting Leadership through Learning & Mentorship
Equip Africa regional coordinators and emerging leaders with tailored mentorship, peer learning exchanges, and targeted capacity-building so they can confidently drive both regional and global strategies.
Co-Designing a Powerful Campaign Framework
Collaboratively develop campaign programs, resources, and toolkits that respond to regional realities while aligning with a unified global vision — ensuring every community feels ownership and pride in the campaign’s success.
Strategic Needs Mapping & Community Listening
Conduct deep listening sessions and structured mapping to identify the most urgent needs, barriers, and opportunities in each region — ensuring no community is left behind in the transition.
Crafting a Compelling Communication & Engagement Plan
Design and implement a multilingual, multi-platform communication strategy that inspires participation, shares impact stories, and connects communities across continents in real time.
Conducting outreach and setting the stage for 2026 campaign launch

This is not just a campaign transition. It is a chance to prove that communities, when trusted with power, can lead global movements with vision, care, and unstoppable impact. With your support, we will not only safeguard the legacy of WikiForHumanRights — we will set it on a path to thrive for decades to come.

7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.

a. Igniting Leadership through Learning & Mentorship

    * Engage in learning sessions with the Community Organizing Experience team at the Wikimedia Foundation to learn how to set up global campaign pages such as this one, evaluate and communicate global campaign metrics, monitor and evaluate campaign impact, document the learning and processes for future regional coordinators, and learning about theme definition
     * Design and launch a campaign survey for the 2025 campaign edition to learn best practices for shaping the 2026 edition and opportunities for growth

b. Strategic Needs Mapping & Community Listening

   * Identify African communities with intention to implement local activities in multiple locations to support their team building efforts and planning to drive growth
   * Identify new African communities or first time organizers interested in implementing local activities for the campaign and offer relevant support
   * Conduct a deep listening session to identify the campaign sub-theme for Africa regional implementation. This would also include learning about most urgent needs, barriers, and opportunities for participating communities.
   * Engage with the LATAM region on interregional collaboration to identify shared goals and accompanying resources for implementation

c. Co-Designing a Powerful Campaign Framework

   * Design program activities, and strategy for creating topic lists for the participating communities, 
   * Create resources, including slide decks, zoom, and language interpretation requests for facilitating office hours 
   * Design a communication toolkit that includes guidelines for community storytelling and timelines, promotion graphics and/or messaging, hashtags, slides and T-shirt template
   * Make relevant pages and documents available in English and French 
   * Crafting a Compelling Communication & Engagement Plan
   * Design an outreach plan for the 2026 campaign with timelines, activities, messaging texts, outreach approach, target platforms, messaging frequency, tasks and responsibilities
   * Translate and make the outreach plan available in French and English to support the diverse participation of the region

d. Conducting outreach and setting the stage for 2026 campaign launch

   * Announce campaign launch in relevant movement space such as mailing lists, telegram groups, Facebook, and WhatsApp groups
   * Mobilizing African communities for the 2026 global information session and supporting the facilitation process
   * Conduct regional office hours to share information on how communities, organizers and participants can engage in the campaign
   * Provide guidance and support for organizers and communities to submit strong rapid grant applications for their local activities

Campaign Feedback and evaluation to gather learning and insight for improvements of future campaigns

8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.

Valentin Nasibu : Wikimedian since 2017, co-founder of Wikimedia DRC, and one of the trainers in the DRC. I will serve as the French-speaking regional coordinator. I have held this position since 2023. I will work in collaboration with the English-speaking regional coordinator, Ruby, to introduce the new model of ownership of the movement in French-speaking African communities. This includes implementing and supporting a model that adequately meets their needs. Training new local organizers and assisting them from start to finish (from drafting their project, implementation, and up to reporting).

Ruby D-Brown : would serve as the Anglophone regional coordinator. She has been serving in this capacity since 2023. Ruby was also the 2022 Senior Content Campaign Organizing Fellow with the Community Organizing Experience team (formerly Campaigns Programs) at the Wikimedia Foundation. She will work alongside Valentin, the Francophone regional coordinator, to roll out the new movement ownership model in Anglophone African communities, ensuring it meets their needs. Ruby has volunteered for other community works. She volunteered as the Eduwiki Africa regional coordinator for 2021/2022, she currently volunteers as the WikiWomen’s user group Coms Com Committee.

9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)

Our target participants include African communities, organizations and organizers who participate in the WikiForHumanRights campaign. These are Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, RDC, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Tchad. We have also heard from new communities who’d like to implement this campaign in their communities. This would be a wonderful opportunity to explore their interest and provide support accordingly to lead local activities for the campaign.

We have a dedicated Telegram group for African organizers who lead the campaign in their different countries where we share information and discussions on the campaign during the different stages of implementation. This would be implored for communication in this edition as well. We would also leverage the campaign’s global Telegram group to inspire and identify potential new communities with interest to participate in the campaign. Relevant support will be provided for such communities to join in leading the global campaign in their local communities.

10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)

No

10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.

N/A

11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.

Before applying, we discussed with the Community Organizing Experience team (formerly Campaigns Programs) at the Wikimedia Foundation what the implementation of the campaign’s movement ownership model looks like in practice in this grant application. This includes understanding what the metrics, activities, and strategies could look like.

We also held a regional office hour in [month] to hear from the organizing communities on their different experiences that would be crucial for shaping the implementation of the model.

12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)

Other Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)

13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)

Climate Change and sustainability

14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)

Linguistic / Language

15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)

Identify Topics for Impact

Learning and metrics

17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)

Through this project, we hope to learn how to successfully transition a global campaign from one facilitated by the Wikimedia Foundation to a model that is truly owned and led by communities. More specifically, we want to strengthen our knowledge and practical skills in:

1. Community Leadership Development – how to mentor, support, and empower regional coordinators so they can not only mobilize their local communities but also contribute confidently at the global strategic level.

2. Listening and Needs Mapping – how to conduct meaningful listening sessions, identify urgent needs, and translate them into concrete strategies that reflect the diverse realities of African communities.

3. Co-Designing Campaigns – how to collaboratively create frameworks, tools, and communication strategies that respect regional diversity while aligning with a shared global vision, with equitable access to resources in both English and French.

4. Strategic Communication and Engagement – how to design multilingual, multi-platform communication plans that inspire participation, build community ownership, and strengthen interregional collaboration (for example, with Latin America).

5. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning – how to document processes, assess impact, capture lessons learned, and establish continuous feedback loops that improve campaigns and create transferable knowledge for future coordinators.

In short, we hope to learn how community-driven leadership can shape and sustain global movements in a way that is inclusive, scalable, and impactful — setting an inspiring model for the future WikiForHumanRights.

18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)

Number of participants, editors, and organizers
Other Metrics	Target	Optional description
Number of participants	300	This is the number of people that participate in the learning spaces, office hours, and other activities relating to the campaign
Number of editors	200
Number of organizers	30	This is the number of communities and their accompanying organizers who organized local activities for the 2025 campaign in Africa. 13 communities, 30 organizers

Number of content contributions to Wikimedia projects
Wikimedia project	Number of content created or improved
Wikipedia	500
Wikimedia Commons	2000
Wikidata	1500
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia

Optional description for content contributions.

N/A

19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)

No

Main Open Metrics Data
Main Open Metrics	Description	Target
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)

Community Events Table (like this one) on the Campaign Meta page : https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights/Join_Community_Events
Event Registration Tool for regional meetings eg. Office hours and/or capacity building
Programs and Events Dashboard for tracking organizing communities’ participation
Diff for telling community stories

Financial proposal

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ai-qO3rFYmg5XkcbTjUaeWeYo0f2Jz_9Nbp2tJ0s0qk/edit?usp=sharing

22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)

5898612 CDF

22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.

2750 USD

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

Endorsements and Feedback

Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.

Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:

Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).

Endorse