Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wiki in Africa Multi-Year General Support 2023-25/Final Report Year 1

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

Documentation of Wiki In Africa's work process, story, and impact[edit]

Below you will find the documentation of Wiki In Africa's programs as part of our final report for Year 1 of the Wikimedia Community Fund/Wiki in Africa Multi-Year General Support 2023-25.

Wiki Loves Africa 2023[edit]

Context[edit]

Wiki Loves Africa (WLAf) is an annual photo contest that takes place annually and is run across the African continent. Wiki Loves Africa encourages the ‘crowd’ contribution of local knowledge of heritage and communal cultures by entering media (photographs, video and audio) about their environment onto Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikimedia projects.

2023 Goals[edit]

The contest takes place in the first quarter of 2023 (theme to be decided).

  • A minimum of 25 African Wikimedia volunteer groups organise local focused WLA activities.
  • At least 10k images are submitted to the 2023 competition.
  • Reuse on Wikimedia projects of at least 10% (12 months after contest). Contest average to 2020 is at 15.5%.
  • The international jury team has at least 5 international members and conducts a transparent process towards the final selection, and publishing of a jury report.
  • A minimum of 5 photography, organiser or wikimedia-related webinars are developed, presented and published to consistently transfer knowledge.
  • At least 2 post-competition events, on-line drives, or activities to extend the theme to improve reuse and add information to contributed images are run.
  • A survey and individual interviews are conducted amongst local team organizers, showing high levels of satisfaction with the contest. Constructive improvements to further develop and enhance the programme for 2024.
  • Documentation of best practices is completed and a final report published for the general public.
  • Photographic training programme Wiki Angle is funded externally.
Activities[edit]
Increased Communications coverage[edit]
Key moments[edit]
  • Wiki in Africa provided Bouba Kam and Mansita with the sum of $250 to enable them plan and organize the Wiki Loves Africa 2023 event in Cote d'Ivoire with an aim of founding a new community of Ivorian videographers and film makers. Bouba Kam is a well-known past WLA winner and has proven history of consistently participating in the annual photo contest in previous years.
  • Namibia participated for the first time in the WLA event but struggled with organization.
  • Senegal had new and invigorating leadership with Essenam and Fatima who we hope to go on to found the Wikimedia Senegal community.
  • This year we introduced the video jury (first of its kind in the movement) to help make a decision on the two video prize categories - Best Video and African Environment video prize. The jury comprised 5 individuals and we relied on google tools to facilitate the entire process.
Community Feedback[edit]
Wiki Loves Africa 2023 Participants Survey

Both Organising Teams and Participants were consulted extensively about their experience of Wiki Loves Africa 2023 and suggestions as to what could be done to improve future editions. The feedback process is documented here:

    • Local organising teams were approached individually for feedback interviews.
    • Contest participants were encouraged to take a survey to share their impressions and experiences (report linked here).
  • Using feedback from a separate survey, a theme voting process was held with the community for the theme of 2024.
  • In November, the Wiki Loves Africa theme for 2024 was announced as Africa Creates.
Impact of 2023 contest[edit]
  • 29 Wikimedia communities participated hosting 20 in-person events
  • 13,386 media files, per Category:Images from Wiki Loves Africa 2023
  • 802 competitors entered from 54 countries
  • 57% of those competitors were new to Commons
  • Current usage of the images stands at 2.6% with 406 distinct images used (this is down over previous years due to the technical issues with the ISA Tool)
  • 4 training topics were covered in webinars (where possible in both English and French)
  • 5 Office Hours were hosted (3 in English and 2 in French)
Impact of Wiki Loves Africa over 9 years[edit]
  • Over 102,026 images have been entered by 11,165 competitors from up to 55 countries under a free licence (CC-BY-SA) ;
  • The images entered to Wiki Loves Africa are viewed nearly 25,072,328 million times each month (June 2022)
  • Wiki Loves Africa’s images from the first 8 years have been viewed over 1,044,490,672 (1 billion) times altogether (June 2022)
  • 32 Wikimedia communities from 26 African countries have hosted participation events, information sessions and training workshops; this year, Madagascar and Niger were unofficially involved.
  • at least 357 participation and training events have been held by participating communities between 2014 and 2023.
  • The competition attracts high levels of new contributors to the Wikimedia projects – an average of 80% of participants being newbies;
  • A Wiki Loves Africa prize-winning image was included in the Journeys Through Our Fragile Heritage exhibition at the UNESCO headquarters, Paris, and
  • Wiki Loves Africa’s ISA tool was the winner of the WikiData Award for Best Multimedia Tool in November 2019.
  • Mohamed Hozyen, a prize winner for Wiki Loves Africa 2019 was been selected for the AFAC - The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture Prins Claus Fonds and Magnum Foundation Arab Documentary Photography Programme
  • A Wiki Loves Africa image Firefighter, Ashton Bay, March 2017 submitted by South African photographer user:StevenTerblanche for the Wiki Loves Africa 2017 contest under the theme of People at Work.The stunning image was selected for 3rd position for the Picture of the Year 2021 award. The image, depicting a courageous firefighter battling against a veld-fire at Ashton Bay, Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa, was one of 17,874 images submitted by 2,435 photographers, the image has finally received the recognition it deserves.
  • A second Wiki Loves Africa image, submitted in the 2020 competition, was also in the Top 5 selection for the Picture of the Year 2021 award. This beautiful monochrome image shot by Egyptian photographer User:Eman arab is of A boy wearing a protective mask during the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt. It was submitted to Wiki Loves Africa’s 2021 competition which focused on Health + Wellness.


Read more[edit]


Wiki Loves Women 2023[edit]

Context[edit]

Wiki Loves Women activates and trains leaders who, through a series of layered activities, build the awareness and skills of participants. By doing so, participants can seize their own agency and address the persistent systemic bias that exists about Africa’s women online and in the media.

The groundbreaking Wiki Loves Women program addresses the biases that women face in the media through Inspiring Open. It builds Wikimedia communities and develops content through its annual SheSaid campaign on WikiQuote. It also mentors and develops the leadership skills of female Wikimedians through its Focus Group program.

2023 Goals[edit]

  • A minimum of 4 additional African-based individuals joins the Wiki Loves Women Focus Group.
  • Focus Group members run at least 9 WLW events with Wiki in Africa in 2023.
  • One iteration of the train-the-trainer course is successfully hosted by the WLW team during the course of 2023 (external funding dependent).
  • A minimum of 3 gender-gap-related webinars are presented and published to consistently transfer knowledge and inspire further action.
  • A minimum of 10 Inspiring Open podcasts are recorded, released and distributed to inspire further action.
  • Two online drives are run during 2023 to accelerate global visibility, provide easy participation in the programs, and consistent content contribution.
  • Support and mentor the application of a minimum 5 wikimedia communities through the application and event planning process for the SheSaid drive.
  • Feedback is collected and collated from the Focus Group members about the program, and includes constructive improvements to further develop and enhance the programme for 2024.

Focus Group[edit]

Coaching and support within the 12 women Focus Group

  • The addition of 4 new members from diverse backgrounds has strengthened the group, fostering collaboration among women from 9 African countries and France.
  • This year, a total of 20 office hours and working sessions were hosted as part of the projectː
  • 2 rapid grand applications were submitted by the Focus Group members.
  • In 5 different countries, a total of 8 #SheSaid local events were successfully organized by the Focus Group members.
  • 2,381 articles created and 2,673 articles improved during the 8 #SheSaid local events.
  • More than 7 memers participated in thematic and international Wiki conferences in 2023.


ISA Drive: Tell Us About Her 2023[edit]

Aimed at enriching WikiCommons images with descriptions, and fostering a more inclusive and global representation, the ISA Challenge - Tell Us About Her: Women on the Frontline Climate, themed this year "Women in Climate" coincided with the Africa Environment Project, spotlighting the often-overlooked contributions of women in environmental and climate-related endeavors both across Africa and abroad.

Results[edit]
  • 43,835 contributions
  • 28 Contributors
  • 2076 Images worked on
Social Media Engagement: Tell Us About Her[edit]

From March 1st to 31st, the WLW team run a social media campaign on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. A total of 20 posts on each were shared. The campaign resulted inː

  • 50.9% - 62.3% on Instagram Increase of the reach.
  • 68.8% on Facebook Increase of the content interactions.
Blogpost[edit]

The outcomes of the campaign were encapsulated in a blog post, titled "Women on The Frontline of Climate – ISA Tell Us About Her 2023 Results" which was prominently featured on the Wiki In Africa Website.

SheSaid 2023 drive on Wikiquote[edit]

Wiki Loves Women held the 4th year of the SheSaid drive in 2023 - Wiki Loves Women's SheSaid drive is documented here. The #SheSaid drive boosts the visibility of women leaders by creating and improving Wikiquote entries about them.

Results[edit]
  • #SheSaid drive organisers portal on Meta reviewed, redesigned and reorganised
  • Participation: Participating Communities
  • 7 Office hours hosted in 3 languages (Arabic, French and English)ː 2 office hours about grants and micro-financing and 5 office hours about on how to edit on Wikiquote.
  • 14 grant applications have been submitted and 6 were approved.
  • 6 new languages joined the campaign in 2023.
  • 18 Wikiquote language projects impacted.
  • 16 national, regional or theme-focused teams (usergroups or volunteer groups) participated.
  • The 2023rd edition resulted in +5 407 new articles created and +1 271 articles improved in 18 languages as followingː
Social Media Engagement: SheSaid[edit]

From March 1st to 31st, the WLW team run a social media campaign on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. A total of 57 posts on each were shared. The campaign resulted inː

  • 197.5% on Facebook and 220.3% on Instagram Increase of the reach.
  • 288.3% on Facebook and 981% on Istagram Increase of the content interactions.

Impact of Wiki Loves Women over 4 years[edit]

  • More than 16,080 new articles created or edited on wikiquote
  • 18 different language communities participate in the #SheSaid campaign
  • 29 working sessions were hosted by the Focus Group members during which they had trainings about 19 topics
  • 42 office hours were hosted by the Focus Group members
  • 140,555 contributions through the ISA campaigns
  • 22,967 images described during the ISA challenges

Read more[edit]

WikiAfrica Hour 2023 [edit]

Context[edit]

WikiAfrica Hour is live and ongoing, with a monthly vodcast that until November 2023 was facilitated by Ceslause with the support of the whole team. Towards the end of 2023, a call was put out to recruit a replacement for Ceslause who had decided concentrate more fully efforts on his new position with AFN. We are sad to see Ceslause go, but excited to see WikiAfrica Hour enter its next phase. The call for applications were posted in 2023 .

2023 Goals[edit]
  • Host a minimum of 10 WikiAfrica Hour sessions across 2023 – 14 held
  • Have a minimum of 24 guests discussing their experiences - 64 guests hosted
  • Increase in viewership to 40% - 34% increase in viewership
  • Engage with and increase WikiAfrica audience by 30% – 54% more YouTube subscribers on 2022 levels
WikiAfrica Hour in 2023 ...[edit]
Key Moments[edit]

During 2023, WikiAfrica Hour became a community platform to launch or do an award ceremonies for Africa-focused projects. These were held outside the usually scheduled time and included the following sessions:

  • The launch of African Environment WikiProject with guest host Anthony Ibe from Africa Tech Radio.
  • The continental launch of the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards
  • The entirely french-language award ceremony for WikiChallenge Écoles d'Afrique in 2023
2023 Guest Feedback[edit]

At the end of 2023, we approached the 101 that have been part of WikiAfrica Hour since 2021. We asked them a few questions about their experience, and their suggestions for future formats, topics and episodes. One in four of the guests responded. Here are the key findings:

  • 96% of guests claimed their overall experience was positive;
  • 85% of guests felt overwhelmingly comfortable and engaged during their WikiAfrica hour episodes;
  • 62% claimed that it impacted their visibility within the Wikimedia Movement;
  • 39% mentioned that they received community feedback about their episode;
  • 65% were eager to return as a guest, and 35% were eager but would want to know what topic is being discussed before they committed;
  • 73% had watched episodes of WikiAfrica Hour (in addition to the one they attended);
  • 69% claimed that the WikiAfrica News section was either useful or very useful for their personal knowledge of opportunities;
  • Some of the comments:

"I received plenty of positive feedback and words of encouragement from the community, which motivated me to continue participating in the Wiki Loves Africa Contest each year."

"The WikiAfrica Hour where I featured came up barely one week after my groups edit-a-thon. This gave my participants the feeling that I am highly placed in the Wikimedia movement."

"After the session, many people especially from my community in Uganda started consulting me on different aspects of the Wikimedia movement especially the growth aspect. others wanted more clarity on the points I shared during the session. Furthermore, I believe it contributed to my appointment as a Wiki Loves Africa 2024 English Ambassador."

"Some African Wikipedians didn't really know me. But after my visit, they were able to visit my bio to get to know me better. Taking part in that meeting that day was very beneficial for me."

"I was a few months into the WMF role and new to the movement. Being on the podcast helped me understand the movement better and build meaningful connections."

"Yes, my participation in WikiAfrica Hour allowed my entire community, family, and friends to discover me, to hear me express my passion, and it was a source of pride for me. In most of the supportive messages I received, it was said: 'You have found your path,' 'You are on the right track,' 'Keep it up,' or 'Congratulations.' You cannot imagine the positive impact these messages of support had on me. Thanks again to WikiAfrica for providing me with this opportunity."


Read more and watch the sessions[edit]


ISA Tool[edit]

Context[edit]

This tool was launched in 2019. The ISA Tool was initially developed as a collaboration between Wiki In Africa, Histropedia and the team facilitating the Structured Data on Commons project. During 2022, Wikimedia Sweden further supported the tool through a research project that aimed to create a fully functional crowdsourcing tool for the semi-automatic tagging of images on Wikimedia Commons.

2023 goals[edit]

In 2023, the goals were to
  • Get the new features coded during the Image_to_Concept project in 2022 to be made live on the tool
  • Get several bugs and improvement requests to be worked on by developers and made live on the tool
  • Run various ISA campaigns
  • Promote it for uses by the community

2023 activities[edit]

  • During 2023, several bugs and features requests were improved, or added to the ISA working board on Phabricator
  • In the second half of 2023, with the support of Mahuton, Wiki Mentor Africa agreed to organize a hackathon dedicated to the ISA Tool. Several meetings were held to organize this hackathon to take place in January 2024 : Wiki Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024
  • Wiki In Africa Campaigns during 2023 included:
    • Tell Us About Her:Women on the Frontline of Climate in March 23 : 2076 images were updated with 43,835 contributions by 28 users

2023 impact of the ISA Tool[edit]

Overall use of ISA Tool during 2023:
  • 32 separate campaigns loaded
  • 150,319 images reviewed
  • 265 users participated
  • 162,083 WikiData linked descriptions added.
Overall impact - in January 2024, the recorded impact of the ISA Tool since its launch in 2019 was:'
  • 1,793,369 images reviewed in
  • 257 campaigns with
  • 602,675 Wikidata descriptions and contributions by
  • 1,132 unique participants.
Note: The statistics for the ISA Tool have been recently (Jan 2023) reviewed. We have found that some categories were not collated in previous years, and as such the longterm statistics should be viewed as minimum amounts.

Read more[edit]


WikiFundi[edit]

Context[edit]

The tool has been updated end of 2021 and given some visibility in 2022. In 2023, the goal was to further promote the 2021 release and implement a strategy of distribution in association with Groups implementing a program of Wikipedia Education or of Kiwix for Schools. In 2023, only a tiny budget was available to this tool in 2023, dedicated to promotion, but some staff time had been allocated.

Activities and challenges encountered during 2023[edit]

  • Un-sufficient skills/availability/motivation from staff assigned to the task.

Way forward[edit]

  • A recruitment process is under way early 2024 to address the challenges. A new Lead Ambassador for WikiAfrica Tools shall implement the strategy 2023-2025.

Read more[edit]


WikiChallenge Ecoles d’Afrique[edit]

WikiChallenge Poster at Wikimania 2023

Context[edit]

The WikiChallenge African Schools is a writing competition on Vikidia and Wikimedia Commons. It is dedicated to pupils aged 8-13 and which takes place in several French-speaking African countries such as Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Tunisia, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Morocco. This Education programme has been running since 2017, managed this year by Florence with Afek’s support. Fondation Orange is the main partner and funder of this program.

Activities[edit]

The contest was organized pretty much in the same way than previous years. In 2022-23, the programme was implemented in 10 countries (those of previous years : Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon, Madagascar, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, RdC, Burkina Faso. Plus a new country: Morroco).
All together, 110 texts ad 630 photos et vidéos have been submitted by the children of 190 schools. The 13 winning establishments were announced on June 05, 2023 during a live WikiAfrica Hour dedicated to the competition. This year, a lot of work has been done in terms of communication (Facebook page, Live with invited personalities, recording of testimonials, compilation videos, etc.).

Challenges[edit]

  • We did not face any vastly unexpected challenge in the implementation of the regular WikiChallenge done in partnership with Fondation Orange since 2017. The contest is renewed for the 6th edition and will be extended in the English speaking Africa, in Sierra Leone for the next edition.
  • However, we had planned to research the creation of a brand new independent edition of the WikiChallenge in English (without the Fondation Orange) and hoped to launch a pilot late 2023. This did not happen due to the lack of skills/availability/motivation of the staff member assigned to this task. Way forward : a recruitment process is under way early 2024 to address this. A new Lead Ambassador for WikiAfrica Tools shall implement the strategy 2023-2025.

Impact[edit]

5 Editions of WikiChallenge (2017-2023)
  • 11 participating countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia and Morocco)
  • 457 participating establishments
  • 467 texts proposed by children and published on Vikidia
  • 2608 photos, drawings and videos published
  • 62 winning schools, for the direct benefit of the hundreds of students and staff of the schools
  • Skills acquired by all participating students
WikiChallenge Edition 2022-2023
  • 10 participating countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, DRC, Senegal and Tunisia).
  • 190 participating schools
  • 110 articles submitted by the pupils
  • 630 Photos and 4 videos produced by pupils
  • 13 winning schools

Key Moments in 2023[edit]

  • More than half of the Orange facilitators were completely brand new. To the project and to the wiki world... this required a lot of dedication to get them up to speed !
  • In 2022, we interviewed many facilitators, teachers, students etc. In 2023 we managed to create an awesome compilation video
  • Communication around the contest was reinforced, in particular with powerful and numerous publications on our Facebook page.
  • Our articles or pictures were featured several times on Vikidia main page !
  • Our jury report is particularly elegant, and we started to compile sets of good articles to communicate about what we were more precisely looking for (it is not so obvious for non-connected kids)
  • We hosted an online ceremony for the celebration of winning schools, on WikiAfrica Hour with several guests invited. Check out the full episode on our YouTube channel
  • And finally, we did a gorgeous 5 years poster (in English), which was presented during the poster session at Wikimania Singapore
More to explore[edit]

Social Media Engagement[edit]

From January 1st to December 31st 2023, the team run several social media campaigns on Twitter and Facebook. A total of 69 posts on each were shared. The campaign resulted inː On Twitterː

  • 2005 Followers
  • 120 reactions
  • 6063 impressions
  • 376 engagements

On Facebookː

  • 3 527 followers
  • 523 reactions
  • 43K impressions
  • 6.22% engagement
  • 193 clicks on links

Read more[edit]

Africa Environment[edit]

The Africa Environment WikiFocus encouraged Wikimedia and other communities to contribute content related to Africa’s Climate to the Wikimedia projects in March 2023 and beyond! The WikiFocus was a project created and developed by Wiki In Africa (WIA) and Wikimedia Community User Group Côte d’Ivoire (WMUG IC) as an integral part of the African Knowledge Initiative (AKI) series of campaigns. The Africa Environment WikiFocus was a content creation and contribution WikiFocus that launched on the African Union’s Wangari Maathai Day (3rd of March). This page is created and maintained by Wiki in Africa.

This project was not funded through the Multi-Year General Support, but is mentioned here for reference.


Wiki In Africa Communications Wins[edit]

Communications tactics for 2023 resulted in:

  • The main website is www.wikiinafrica.org. There also is a comprehensive presence on Meta. All projects have Meta pages, with activity portals on the respective project.
  • The Wiki In Africa Linked-in channel was utilised more effectively during 2023 and, as a result, saw a marked rise of 58.9% in followers.
  • Separate monthly newsletters in English and French are sent out to 3,966 subscribers (19.6% increase in 2023)
  • All webinars and live shows are hosted on the Wiki In Africa YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/wikiinafrica), which recorded 9,672 views over 2023 and a 54% increase in subscribers.
  • WLA has tailored communications to photography and media professionals, and a social media engagement program targeting Africa’s photographers. The targeted social media campaign saw increased engagement across all platforms, with Instagram followers increasing by 21.7%. Facebook followers remained stable at around 32,723.
  • Wiki Loves Africa Organisers Telegram group activates discussions
  • SheSaid or ISA Tell Us About Her drives activated mostly through alerts and discussions on the Wiki pages, as well as Gender Gap and WikiWomen Telegram groups. The Wiki Loves Women social media campaigns were very successful, again, especially for Instagram, with an 80.8% increase in followers.
  • WLW Focus Group’s closed Telegram group facilitates discussions, calls for help, shared achievements, validated experiences, questions, spot polls, etc.
  • Opportunities or calls shared on African Wikimedians Telegram and FB group and mailing lists.
  • WikiAfrica social media channels remain the main channels for WikiAfrica Hour announcements and other project opportunities, which saw an 8.7% and 5.6% increase in followers in 2023 for Twitter and Facebook, respectively.

Credits[edit]

Compiled by
Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grants_talk:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Wiki_in_Africa_Multi-Year_General_Support_2023-25/Final_Report_Year_1&oldid=26196380"