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

Below you will find the documentation of Wiki In Africa's programs as part of our final report for Year 2 of the Wikimedia Community Fund/Wiki in Africa Multi-Year General Support 2023-25.

Wiki Loves Africa 2024

Link to Wiki Loves Africa 2024: Results and best practices page

Context

Wiki Loves Africa is a photography contest, which encourages participants to contribute media (photographs, video and audio) that illustrate the specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and is chosen by the community from a few universal, visually rich and culturally specific topics (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc). The yearly review evaluates the contest's impact, identifying areas for growth and improvement. This report promotes transparency, accountability, and community engagement, while celebrating African heritage and cultural diversity.

2024 Goals

The contest takes place in the first quarter of 2024.

A minimum of 25 African Wikimedia volunteer groups organise local focused WLA activities.
At least 10k images are submitted to the 2024 competition.
Reuse on Wikimedia projects of at least 10% (12 months after contest).
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 2025.
Documentation of best practices is completed and a final report published for the general public.
Photographic training programme Wiki Angle is funded externally.

Activities

Video featuring the Wiki Loves Africa 2024 shortlisted photographs

Creation of homepage on meta, with key facts and timeline information: Wiki Loves Africa 2024
Creation of contest page on Commons: Wiki Loves Africa 2024
Support of 29 Rapid Grant submission requests. 12 were accepted
All along the contest, support to 33 organizers
Several training webinars were organized, in 3 different languages
Developed and implemented a communication campaign on Insta, Facebook and Twitter. Wiki Loves Africa ‘Africa Creates’ theme videos in the Wiki Loves Africa Playlist
The jury process:
- 14,163 images, 33 Audios and 308 videos were reviewed through the Wiki Loves Africa Jury process.
- The first round of photographic images was done by 36 Commonists and Wikimedians.
- The subsequent rounds were reviewed by a jury of 11 members from Nigeria, South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, United Kingdom, Uganda, Sudan, Senegal, and Zimbabwe.
- The new videographic jury was done by a jury team of 4 members from Nigeria, Algeria and South Africa.
- The photo jury comprised a mix of professional photographers, experience Commonists, and past Wiki Loves Africa winners), from Africa and internationally.
The 2024 WLA Jury report
- There was a shortlist of 20-images, and from that selection the final choices were made. The top 20 shortlist for Wiki Loves Africa 2024 theme.
The winning images and videos can be viewed in detail on the Wiki Loves Africa 2024 Winners page.
The Prizes have been awarded and the money transferred to award-winners.
Winners interview on October 2024 WAH episode.
A video was created, celebrating 10 years of Wiki Loves Africa.
A poster was created and shared during Wikimania
Results and best practices page done annually to track and share our experience (work in progress since the contest is not over) : Result and best practices 2024
Interview, select and contract Wiki Loves Africa community facilitator, Hilary Onuh Ogali to replace Wilson Kelechi Oluoha.

2024 Impact

14,019 media files, per Category:Images from Wiki Loves Africa 2024
791 competitors entered from 46 countries
33 Wikimedia communities participated in hosting 17 events
9 training topics were covered in webinars (where possible in both English and French)
Different Office Hours were hosted before the contest.

Key moments

Wiki Loves Africa introduced for the first time a team of 6 ambassadors who supported 3 different linguistic communities (English, French and Arabic) during Wiki Loves Africa 2024 campaign.
In 2024 we had our second video jury process ever. The process was conducted via Google forms and has three specific sequential parts: a yes/no round, a rating round, and a final ranking discussion.
The International Narrative Video Prize was won by a newcomer who made their first-ever contribution to Wikimedia through Wiki Loves Africa 2024.
In a historic milestone, the Igbo Wikimedians User Group and the Republic of Congo communities awarded their first-ever Local Video Prize in the history of Wiki Loves Africa
Igala Wikimedia Community participated in Wiki Loves Africa for the first time and they were able to participate even when they could not get funding.
Zimbabwe Wikimedians participated in Wiki Loves Africa campaign for the first time and they were able to host 2 different events and bring out good and impressive results.
Wiki Loves Africa dedicated facilitator, Wilson Kelechi Oluoha passed on 13th September 2024 during the WikiConference Nigeria at Abuja, Nigeria.

Community Engagement

Both Organising Teams and Participants were consulted extensively about their experience of Wiki Loves Africa 2024 and suggestions as to what could be done to improve future editions. The final feedback process is documented here.

Contest participants were encouraged to take a survey to share their impressions and experiences
123 participants (81 males and 42 females) gave their responses to the survey sharing their impressions and experiences.

Local organising teams were approached individually for feedback interviews run in July/August. Unfortunately, most of the interview data was lost after Wilson passed.
Winners of Wiki loves Africa 2024 were interviewed on the October 2024 WAH episode.

Using feedback from a separate survey, a theme voting process was held with the community for the theme of 2025.

Communications

In September, the Wiki Loves Africa theme for 2025 was announced as Farm to Plate. Following numerous posts, our WLA Facebook page is now followed by over 32k followers. Twitter followers grew to 2,107 and Instagram stayed stable at 1,968. Find the detailed analysis here.

X

Link 2024/2023 overview
Link 2024 tweet spreadsheet
Followers: 2,110 (^0.5%)
New Followers: 12 (-89.8%)
Mentions: 197 (-19.6%)
Tweets: 114 (-9.5%)
Engagement rate: 5.99% (-12.2%)
Impressions: 7,618 (-68.9%)
Retweets: 52 Post link clicks: 38 (^443%) Post media views: 880 (^3K%)

Facebook

Link 2024/2023 overview
Link 2024 post spreadsheet
Page fans: 32,512 (-0.6%)
Page new fans: 386 (^96.9%)
Page followers: 32,999 (^1.2%)
Page new followers: 492 (^40.6%)
Page impressions: 95,160 (^20.1%)
Page reach: 41,781 (-6.5%)
Posts: 140
Post engagement: 1,773 (-43.6%)
Post impressions: 42,752 (-37.8%)
Post reach: 40,249 (-39.7%)
Post reel plays: 410

Instagram

Link 2024/2023 overview
Link 2024 spreadsheet
Page followers: 1,963 (^7.6%)
Page new followers: 138
Posts: 124
Post engagement: 1,733 (-33.4%)
Post impressions: 15,307 (^3%)
Post shares: 96
Post reactions: 1,237

Wiki Loves Africa-focused Newsletters and Press Releases

Creativity and work ethic across the continent is captured in Wiki Loves Africa’s “Africa Creates” competition winners. Read here. Opens: 110, Link Clicks: 39
La créativité et l'éthique du travail à travers le continent africain sont capturées par les gagnants du concours Wiki Loves Africa sous le thème « L’Afrique Crée ». Read here. Opens: 77, Link Clicks: 30
Announcing the 2024 Wiki Loves Africa photography shortlist! Read here. Opens: 229, Link Clicks: 105
Annonce de la présélection des gagnants du concours photo Wiki Loves Africa 2024 ! Read here. Opens: 102, Link Clicks: 17

Wiki Loves Women 2024

Link to results and best practices page

Context

Wiki Loves Women is a key initiative by Wiki In Africa, focused on closing the content gaps about women and Africa across Wikimedia projects. Our mission has two main goals: expanding the available content on women and fostering broader community participation in contributing to Wikimedia. In 2024, we worked along 4 directions:

ISA Challenge - Tell Us About Herː Women In Art (March - April 2024)ː A special campaign used the ISA tool to add descriptions to images on WikiCommons, improving how women are shown. Held in March, this project aimed to give a clearer and fuller story to images of women in art.
Wiki Loves Women Focus Group (January - December 2024)ː The Wiki Loves Women Focus Coaching programme is a practical, mentored online training initiative aimed at supporting community leaders. It is designed to empower participants by sharing skills and knowledge, helping them create gender-equity programs within the Wikimedia and Open movements.
SheSaid campaign (October - December 2024): The SheSaid drive celebrates and honors women by increasing their representation and visibility on Wikiquote.
The Inspiring Open podcast (2024): It showcase the exceptional women leaders across Africa and beyond, by hearing, in their words, their journey and achievements, challenges and motivations.

2024 Goals

Tell Us About Her ISA Drive:

Run one online image description improvement drive run on ISA Tool during 2024
A minimum of 30 participants
A minimum of 50,000 contributions

WLW Focus Group:

A minimum of 4 additional African-based individuals join the Wiki Loves Women Focus Group.
Focus Group members run at least 12 WLW events with Wiki in Africa in 2024.
A minimum of 4 gender-gap-related webinars are presented and published to consistently transfer knowledge and inspire further action.
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.

SheSaid Campaign:

Onboard a minimum of 2 new language communities
A minimum of 5 communities are inspired to participate
Support the application of 12 communities or individuals for rapid grant support
Host 5 office hours and training sessions throughout the project
SheSaid central portal updated
SheSaid redlists and queries reconfigured for 2024
Global social media campaign sees 10% increase in engagement across Wiki Loves Women social platforms
5 blog posts
2 DIFF articles created
Encourage documentation of events hosted by organisers
Experience Feedback Survey conducted with organizers and participants
All metrics collated and analyzed
SheSaid event targets, a minimum of …
18 Wikiquote language projects impacted
10 national, regional or theme-focused teams (usergroups or volunteer groups) participate
8 000 entries created or improved

Inspiring Open Podcast:

Produce 12 new episodes

Activities

Key moments (stand out stories; awards; etc.)

SheSaid was mentioned as one of the 2 biggest campaigns in the african movement at WikiIndaba 2024. The end of the year edition was even bigger than previous year, with over 10k entries to Wikiquote made in 19 languages;
The Wiki Loves Women initiative was featured in a special edition of WikiAfrica Hour, a three-part series dedicated to highlighting efforts aimed at bridging the gender gap within the Wikimedia movement, including some work within education.
This year, the WLW Focus Group members have made significant changes to the leadership program by preparing for the launch of a new global campaign in 2025; Wiki OTO will be organized and managed entirely by the members themselves, according to a Learning by Doing approach. Additionally, the working sessions will adopt a hands-on learning approach, enhancing engagement among participants and increasing the group's visibility within the broader community.

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

As part of the global gender gap community, the Wiki Loves Women (WLW) initiative not only runs its own projects but also (very) actively participated in various global events:

WikiWomen Summit at Wikimania 2024
WikiWomen Launch at Wiki Indaba 2024
WikiWomen Summit at WikiArabia 2024

Communications

Wiki Loves Women Social Media and Communications

Xː

Followers: 1,856 (^1%)
New Followers: 20
Mentions: 202 (^20%)
Tweets: 40
Engagement rate: 5.49%
Impressions: 5,741 (-71%)
Retweets: 77
Post link clicks: 29 (-6.5%)
Post media views: 140 (^637%)

Facebookː

Page fans: 8,973 (-0,5%)
Page new fans: 74
Page followers: 9,075
Page new followers: 97
Page impressions: 23,764 (^109%)
Page reach: 16,709 (^110%)
Posts: 55
Post engagement: 406 (-4.2%)
Post impressions:7,757 (-15.9%)
Post reach: 7,176 (-16.2%)
Post reel plays: 0 (No reels created for WLW)

Instagramː

Page followers: 706 (^19.1%)
Page new followers: 176 (-46.7%)
Posts: 54
Post engagement: 17.35% (^6.306%)
Post impressions: 3,045 (-32.9%)
Post shares: 36
Post reactions: 396 (-0.5%)

2024 Impact

ISA Tell Us About Her: Women in Art:

32,826 contributions
38 Contributors
8,158 Images worked on

Wiki Loves Women Focus Group:

12 new members
28 total members
12 working sessions
A new wikidata campaign Wiki OTO is starting in 2025 run by the WLW FG members

SheSaid 2024:

19 participating languages (Arabic, Banjar, Bengali, Central Bikol (bcl) and Tagalog (tl), Dutch, English, Fante (Incubator), French, German, Gungbe, Igbo, Italian, Serbian, Setswana (Incubator), Spanish, Swahili, Telugu and Ukrainian).
15 participating communities
3 new languages joined
14 grant applications submitted
9 diff posts shared
11 029 new or improved articles (detailed results per language are here)
Top 3 languages are:
- Setswana with 3,039 new or improved articles
- Hausa with 1,921 new or improved articles
- English with 1,592 new or improved articles

SheSaid 2024 in Senegal
SheSaid 2024 in RDC
SheSaid 2024 in Chad
SheSaid 2024 in Nigeria
SheSaid 2024 in Netherlands
SheSaid 2024 in the Philippines

Inspiring Open podcast

5 interviews with leading WikiWomen have been conducted over 2023 and 2024.
3 other WikiWomen have been interviewed in the new In Focus: Inspiring Open segment for WikiAfrica Hour.
These episodes have been recorded and prepared, and will be published in 2025.

Impact of Wiki Loves Women over 5 years

27 109 new articles created or edited on Wikiquote
22 different language communities participate in the SheSaid campaign
41 working sessions were hosted by the Focus Group members
173 381 contributions through the ISA Tell Us about her campaigns
31 125 Images described during the ISA challenges

WikiAfrica Hour 2024

Link to: results and best practices page

Context

WikiAfrica Hour is a monthly vodcast to support the activities of the WikiAfrica movement and wikimedians across Africa. It is published by Wiki in Africa. WikiAfrica Hour intends to increase the cohesion of the Wikimedia Movement by :

Increasing the understanding of and sharing opportunities within the global Wikimedia Movement
Showcasing the global movement through an African lens by offering alternative perspectives, applications and solutions
Providing a platform where African solutions, contributors and leaders are showcased to the regional and global movements

WikiAfrica Hour intends to

Share current updates, and highlights of Africa Wikimedians activities
Interact with guest(s) (if any), and take questions from community members
Promote synergy within the Wiki community by discussing topics, projects, constraints, collaborations, and opportunities.
Provide the Wikimedian community with out-of-the-box topics and constructive conversations directed by experienced speakers from the community or the wikimedia foundation
Introduce an in-focus section in each episode to shed light on a project, someone, or event

This is done through

Identification of interesting themes (sometimes suggested by communities, UG or WMF)
Identification and reach out to host and guests
Carefully preparing each episode
Collating news in advance, and recording news summary to present at the launch of the episode
Preparing an in-focus section in advance, to present at the end of the episode
Onboarding Guests and Host to use Streamyard
Live streaming once a month
Post editing the episode if required + description on Youtube
Communication campaign conception and implementation
Final survey of all guests/host
Documentation through the creation of a Results and Best Practices page

2024 Goals

Host a minimum of 10 WikiAfrica Hour episodes in 2024
Have a minimum of 24 guests discussing their experiences
Pre-record the news before the livestream
Increase the viewership in youtube to 40% of 2023 levels
Engage with and increase WikiAfrica audience by 30%

Activities

From the beginning of 2024, WikiAfrica Hour went under continuous analysis, scrutiny and change. Just some of the changes included:

WikiAfrica Hour facilitation position advertised, interviews conducted, shortlist compiled, 2nd round of interviews, final choice made, new person onboarding
Multiple internal workshops on branding, format, topics, etc.
Rebranding - new logo, new vibrant colour palette, new visual language
Intros and Outros - updated with new voiceover and visually to reflect new branding
New program flow – news, introduction, main topic discussion, Q&A section, in-focus segment, summary
News section – pre-recorded and placed at the beginning of the program
Guest hosts - a different guest host per program who is experienced in the topic
Main topics - topics divided into 3 main segments, discussion format preferred
In Focus segment – enabling deep dive into a topic, Inspiring Open interviews, and "Echoes from" segment allowing for interviews with African delegates
Onboarding guest hosts – multiple meetings with guest hosts to collaborate around the topic and to ensure that all aspects of the topic are covered.
Internal documentation reviewed and updated

Key moments

During 2024, WikiAfrica Hour became a community platform to show up the wikimedia communities’ projects, achievements, personals, attendance and feedback in regional and international conferences. There are examples of episodes (or part of episodes achieved that)

Raise African voices and feedback from some African attendees in WikiIndaba 2024 and WikiArabia 2024, this was achieved via conducting interviews with them and edit a video to be shown in the in focus section in episode (In focus section of Ep 41 WikiAfrica Hour Ep#41 Let’s celebrate our community projects’ achievements!)
Host a whole conversation about Wikimania and its partnerships with some of Wikimania Organising experts. (Ep 38 Wikimania as a collaboration on the Open)
Share some African attendees feedback about Wikimania 2024 and present this echoes video in the In Focus section of Ep38 Wikimania as a collaboration on the Open
End up the year with hosting some African leaders to talk about their projects. (Ep 41 Let’s celebrate our community’s projects & achievements!)
Show up Africa Baraza and Wiki Causerie and their goals for all Wikimedia communities (the episode that encourage some members of other communities to think of prepare some sort of connect) Ep 37 Bringing people together: Africa Baraza & Wiki Causerie

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

2 Prep meetings for each guest host for onboarding
Poster at Wikimania 2024
End of the year feedback survey from the guests and guest hosts of 2024 episodes
Event page on meta for each episode (example of ep#37)

Communications

We have 2 communication campaigns for each episode; before & after

The communication campaign BEFORE the episode:

Sharing the episode details (the topic, description, guest host, and guests) on our social media platforms:
- WikiAfrica Facebook page (An example of 39 episode)
- Wiki In Africa in LinkedIn
- WikiAfrica on X
Announce the episode on Wikimedia mailing lists:
- African Wikimedians
- Wikimedia L
- variant mailing lists according to the topic of each episode.
Announce the episode on relevant Telegram channels, for example:
- Wikimedia General Chat
- Wikimedia announcement channel
- African Wikimedians
- WikiFranca
- other variant telegram groups according to the topic of each episode.
Write a blog post on Wiki In Africa website about the upcoming episode
Create an event page on meta and share the link with community members (example of ep#37)

The communication campaign AFTER the episode:

We post post-episode diff post (example of ep#37)
Re-write the blog post on Wiki Ain Africa website (to be in past tense) (Link to blog posts about WAH)
Share some quotes of episode’s guests on our social media pages (listed above), (example from #ep41).

Some quantitative data

WikiAfrica Hour does not have its own social media platforms, and posts from Wiki In Africa’s X and Facebook accounts, and when relevant to the episode, from Wiki Loves Africa’s 3 social media platforms.

WAH tweets on X have got 2976 impressions in 2024
WAH posts on Facebook have got 9845 impressions in 2024 and 10049 reach.

2024 Impact

9 episodes hosted with 45 guest speakers and 9 different guest hosts
We had a different guest host for each episode who is expert in the episode’s topic which provides more professionality and enrichment in the new format.
Collected and recorded 58 news items and showed them during the episode (some of community members contacted us to announce some important news in this section for example, we were contacted to announce the deadline of Ombuds and Affcom committees participation)
In 2024, WAH entered a new section, the In focus section, which enabled us to highlight:
- Persons in inspiring open interview (as in Ep 36 Does the Wikimedia movement contribute to the SDGs?, interview Ruby D-Brown to highlight her work in open movement)
- Events such as echoes from conferences (as in Ep 38 Wikimania as a collaboration on the Open Echoes from Wikimania and Ep 41 Let’s celebrate our community’s projects & achievements! echoes from WikiArabia and WikiIndaba)
The WAH playlists on youtube had a 5% increase in the number of non-subscriber audiences compared to the previous year.

ISA Tool

Link to ISA Tool/Results and best practices 2024

Context

ISA is a fun, multilingual, mobile-first microcontributions tool, that makes it easy for (groups of inexperienced) people to add structured data to images on Wikimedia Commons. ISA was originally built to provide better multilingual and structured descriptions of Wiki Loves Africa images. But it is also developed to be useful to all of the Wiki Loves X competitions, and eventually ended up being meant for all media files on Wikimedia Commons. ISA was developed as a collaboration between Wiki In Africa, Histropedia and the Structured Data on Commons project. It is a GLAM pilot for Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons. The ongoing facilitation and communications for the ISA Tool is by the Wiki In Africa team.

2024 Goals

At least 50,000 edits done through ISA in 2024
Increase the awareness about the tool
Tool updated and additional elements added in 2024 (external funding or in-kind support dependent)

Activities

ISA campaigns organised by Wiki In Africa

Tell Us About Her campaigns: Women in Art - March/April 2024 (Contributors: 38 ; Images worked on: 8158 ; Total Contributions: 32764)
Wiki Loves Africa campaigns > ISA Challenge - WLA Africa Creates (October-November 2024) (Contributors: 39, Images worked on: 13511, Total Contributions: 34370)

ISA campaigns organised by various wikimedia community members

AfroCreatives WikiProject 2024 en Côte d'Ivoire (Contributors: 13 ; Images worked on: 8136; Total Contributions: 928)
Wiki loves africa 2024 in Républic of Congo (Contributors: 6 ; Images worked on: 575; Total Contributions: 901)
Kampanye ISA 2023 Edisi Wiki Cinta Alam 2021-22 (Contributors: 25 ; Images worked on: 4852; Total Contributions: 64560)

Wiki Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024

A hackathon was organized in January 2024 to improve the ISA tool and recruit new developers who might be interesting in further working on it. Catering specifically to Africans keen on becoming Wikimedia developers/tool creators and technical writers. From January 19th to 21st, this mission found new momentum with the very first 100% online Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon, with a spotlight on the innovative ISA tool. The hackathon was open to developers, designers, technical writers, and Wikimedia community members and it was beneficial for both new and experienced Wikimedians.

Tutorials and how toes

The Wikimedia Commons pages were fully revamped, tutorials and presentations created

Key moments (stand out stories; awards; etc.)

ISA received the Coolest Tool Award at Wikimania 2024, category Eggbeater.
Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon: The decision to support multiple languages, including French, significantly enhanced the inclusivity of the hackathon, ensuring a diverse range of voices and perspectives were heard. Moreover, by hosting the event online, Wiki Mentor Africa removed geographical barriers, allowing anyone, anywhere, the opportunity to join and contribute. Through the lens of Wiki Mentor Africa, this event was more than a hackathon; it was a stepping stone towards building and sustaining a more inclusive, technically skilled Wikimedia community across Africa.
- Results & Impact of the Hackathon
  - 129 people actively contributed to the hackathon, from 14 countries
  - 22 phabricator tickets were taking care of
  - Link to the event page.
  - Wiki Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024 on Diff
Tutorials to use ISA were created. These are some tutorials created in 2024 to explain using ISA:
- A Tutorial video about how to use ISA Tool as a participant. (This video explains what structured data is, what ISA is, and how to add structured data using ISA, published on Youtube in October 2024, prepared through months as a collaboration of WIA team)
- Slides about how to use ISA, created to be presented at WikiArabia Oman in October 2024.
In November 2024, ISA faced a technical bug which impacted all campaign organisers who were using the tool and led them to complain and report on Phabricator (ISA could not import images from commons, which means ZERO images, which means no campaigns nor contributions). This issue continued till the second week of January 2025, when Eugene Egbe, the tool’s maintainer, had time to observe the issue and it was approximately solved but unfortunately, this affected the metrics of the year as many campaigns were launched during the period of the bug but there was no way. Currently, we try to board some technical experts as maintainers so that one of them is available to help when the other is not.

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

Conferences

WikiArabia 2024 in Oman Unlocking Image Potential: Improve Searchability with the ISA Tool (Workshop)
A campaign was created during the workshop to practice.
ISA presented as a poster at Wikimania 2024 at Poland with a campaign about Poland for better explanation.

Wiki Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024

The hackathon was organised as a collaboration between Igbo Wikimedia User Group, Wikimedia Deutschland, Wiki In Africa, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Some figures:

428 people registered
328 people attended the 3 days event, from 14 countries
129 actively contributed to the hackathon
Mentors: Eugene Egbe, Amir Aharoni, Florence Devouard, and Fongoh Tayong
Link to the event page.
Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024 on Diff

Communications

Social media engagement

We use social media pages of Wiki In Africa and other allies to advertise ISA updates:
We created social media campaign on WIA Facebook page, twitter, and telegram channels (African Wikimedians, Wikimedia announcements) to announce the tutorial video.
We created social media campaigns on pages related to the campaign such as Wiki Loves Women for Tell Us About Her campaign and Wiki Loves Africa for their campaigns.

Email outreach

We use mailing lists to announce ISA updates and to advertise campaigns
We usually use the general ones such as: Wikimedia-l & africanWikimedians, but also we use other mailing lists according to the topic of the campaign announced.

2024 Impact

Metrics by Queries

.	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Number of contributions	0	51,640	85,563	150,295	153,094	162,083	41,777
Number of contributors	0	149	237	268	213	265	176
Source query used to generate the contribution statistics	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data

Important note: concerning the number of contributions this year, we have to mention that:

It was greatly affected by the abovementioned bug which almost stopped the tool for more than two months in the end of the year as well as affected by the hackathon of the beginning of the year (as it took several months for the new changes to be fully made live)
The method to count the edits was changed in 2024, to avoid users misusing it to increase their edit accounts. This explains much lower figures in 2024. The change of the counting method will obviously impact every figures in the years ahead.

Whilst the tool was improved (and celebrated) in 2024, it still has pending bugs and many improvements requests. We also need a new technical maintainer.

WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique

Link to: results and best practices page

Context

The project is a training&writing program and a contest, designed for primary schools in Africa. The contest run for kids 9-13 in at least 8 francophone countries across Africa. It is targeted at the education community to develop various skills of the youth and of their teachers, such as digital skills, collaborative skills, critical thinking etc. It is also meant to provide the opportunity to share knowledge since the content produced is shared through the Vikidia platform as well as through Wikimedia Commons. Awards are offered to schools with the best productions.

2024 Goals

All goals envisioned for 2024 were reached.

Run the WikiChallenge Écoles d’Afrique successfully.
At least 10 countries participating
At least 50 schools participating
Introduce for the first time an English edition
At least 100 articles produced and published on Vikidia
Winners selected, announced, celebrated and gifted
Experience of liaisons sought and incorporated in following edition
All results and impact added to the WikiChallenge page.

To be noted : the main funder of this initiative is the Fondation Orange.

Activities

Some activities included

Production of training material (videos, slides, docs)
Training and supporting local facilitators to run the programme locally
Reviewing and compiling all articles produced and all media published
Prepare and implement a jury process
Celebrate ! ceremonies etc.
Run a communication campaign around the contest
Coordinate all stakeholders

Key moments (stand out stories; awards; etc.)

For the first time, the contest took place in an English speaking country (Sierra Leone). This meant a lot of translations, new trainings, new portal, new partners etc.
The 12 winning schools (9 national prizes and three international prizes) were announced on the 18 of June 2024 in the introduction of the Prix Orange du Livre Afrique (POLA) in Morocco.
In September 2024, Open Education Global was awarded the "Open Pedagogy Award for Excellence" at the WikiChallenge competition.

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

Communications

Communication on the contest is done by several partners, in collaboration. Wiki in Africa run its own campaign around the year (using massively Facebook, Twitter, Diff, Education Newsletter, WIA Newsletter). Fondation Orange runs it own campaign, using a small website, promotional messages, videos from Brut, International ceremony… Local Fondation Orange partners are more occasionally posting about the contest activities and results in their country.

About Wiki in Africa social media

Link to visuals

From January to December 2024, 49 posts were shared on social media (5 campaigns), which resulted in:

On Facebook:

422 réactions
10.8K Couverture
79 clicks sur les liens

On X:

28 publications
252 réactions
5763 impressions
492 engagements

2024 Impact

9 participating countries (Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinée Conakry, Madagascar, Mali, RDC, Sénégal, Tunisie and Sierra Leone).
337 registered schools
151 texts submitted by the students
715 Photos and 38 videos produced by the students
12 winning schools
Visibility for the initiative and Vikidia after WikiChallenge was awarded the Open Pedagogy prize by OE Global

2025 ahead

Fondation Orange has decided to continue the WikiChallenge in 2025, with an expansion in 2 additional English speaking countries
Fondation Orange has agreed to increase the funding to get more support from local wikimedia entities when relevant

WikiLearn “Propriété Intellectuelle et Creative Commons”

Link to the "Propriété Intellectuelle et Creative Commons" Course

Context

The project is a new course published on WikiLearn, to train French speaking wikimedians in Intellectual Property and Creative Commons.

2024 Goals

Create the first iteration of content
Publish the course

Activities

Production of training material (videos, slides, docs)
Creation of a visual to introduce the course

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

WikiFranca and the discussion mailing list of Wikimedia France have been informed.
Volunteers interested in reviewing the content have been identified and will be contacted in 2025

2025 ahead

Improve based on initial reviews
Add content and exercises
Promote

Wiki In Africa Communications Wins

Detailed report available here

Wiki In Africa Social Media

X

Link 2024/2023 overview
Link 2024 tweet spreadsheet
Followers: 2,050 (1.9%)
New Followers: 41 (-75%)
Mentions: 221 (^43.2%)
Tweets: 146
Engagement rate: 7,3% (^13.6%)
Impressions: 9,684 (-77.6%)
Retweets: 166
Post link clicks: 40 (-57.9%)
Post media views: 245 (-60.5%)

Facebook

Link 2024/2023 overview
Link 2024 post spreadsheet
Page fans: 2,429 (62.8%)
Page new fans: 95 (-11%)
Page followers: 2,556 (^4.3%)
Page new followers: 125 (-13.3%)
Page impressions: 27,067 (^35.9%)
Page reach: 18,529 (38.8%)
Posts: 132
Post engagement: 1,404 (^33.8%)
Post impressions: 18,281 (^30.6%)
Post reach: 17,197 (^31,7%))
Post reel plays: 344

LinkedIn

Link 2024/2023 overview
Link 2024 post spreadsheet
Page followers: 456
Page new followers: 81
Page impressions: 7,776
Page reach: 3,315 connections
Posts: 134
Post engagement: 7.7%
Post impressions: 8,491
Post shares: 42

WikiAfrica Hour

WikiAfrica Hour does not have its own social media platforms, and posts from Wiki In Africa’s X and Facebook accounts, and when relevant to the episode, from Wiki Loves Africa’s 3 social media platforms. The data below is collected from Wiki In Africa’s social media spreadsheets, and is therefore not entirely accurate. As such, PDF overviews for WikiAfrica Hour are not available.

Facebook:

Link 2024 post spreadsheet
Posts: 67
Post engagement: 687
Post impressions: 9,845
Post reach: 10,049

X: WikiAfrica Hour data provided for X is collated from the WikiAfrica X Post spreadsheet by filtering for posts with the hashtag #WikiAfricaHour. The data is not accurate, but with X platform limiting analytics to subscribers and WikiAfrica Hour not having its own X account, this is the best workaround possible. These figures do not account for cross-posting or posts about the project from other accounts.

Link 2024 tweet spreadsheet
Tweets: 56
Engagement rate: 6.04% (average calculated by adding together the engagement rates on each post and dividing by number of tweets)
Engagements: 250
Impressions: 2,976
Retweets: 62

2024 Wiki In Africa Social Media Analysis

X (formerly Twitter) Performance

Followers: 2,050 (^1.9%)
New Followers: 41 (-75%, significant drop)
Mentions: 221 (^43.2%, strong increase)
Tweets: 146
Engagement Rate: 7.3% (^13.6%, improved engagement)
Impressions: 9,684 (-77.6%, sharp decline)
Retweets: 166
Post Link Clicks: 40 (-57.9%)
Post Media Views: 245 (-60.5%)

Insights

Wiki In Africa has seen a strong increase in mentions (+43.2%) and engagement rate (+13.6%), indicating that the content is resonating with the existing audience. However, the sharp decline in impressions (-77.6%) and new followers (-75%) suggests that reach has drastically reduced, likely due to the ongoing departure of Wikimedians from X, but possibly also X’s policies on paid subscriptions impacting us negatively. Additionally, post media views (-60.5%) and link clicks (-57.9%) are down, meaning that while engagement with content remains high among those who see it, fewer people are being exposed to the content overall.

Recommendations

Shift focus to other platforms: With a decreasing Wikimedia presence on X, it may be time to prioritise Facebook, LinkedIn, and build new platforms in 2025 for engagement.
Focus on high-performing media content: With media views declining, use more engaging visuals, videos, and infographics to maintain interest.

Facebook Performance

Page Fans: 2,429 (^62.8%, substantial increase)
New Fans: 95 (-11%)
Page Followers: 2,556 (^4.3%)
New Followers: 125 (-13.3%)
Page Impressions: 27,067 (^35.9%)
Page Reach: 18,529 (^38.8%)
Posts: 132
Post Engagement: 1,404 (^33.8%)
Post Impressions: 18,281 (^30.6%)
Post Reach: 17,197 (^31.7%)
Post Reel Plays: 344

Insights

Facebook performance shows substantial improvement across key engagement and visibility metrics:

Page reach (+38.8%) and impressions (+35.9%) have increased, meaning more people are seeing content.
Post engagement (+33.8%) is up, indicating that posts are resonating more with audiences.
Follower growth has slowed (-13.3%), suggesting that while the current audience is engaging, new audience acquisition could be improved.
Reels (344 plays) suggest growing engagement with short-form video, but could be improved with better WikiAfrica Hour short content, which would also drive engagement and audience to the broadcast, which is greatly needed.

Recommendations:

Expand the use of video content: Short videos and reels should be prioritised, as they tend to have higher organic reach and engagement. Particularly, WikiAfrica Hour content needs to be leveraged for this, so that News and clips from episodes are created for quotes instead of static shares.
Leverage engagement momentum: Increase interactive posts (e.g., polls, discussions, user-generated content) to keep audiences engaged. We could try asking our followers what they want to see on WikiAfrica Hour through polls, or get them to share news via our socials that can be used for WikiAfrica Hour. Perhaps we could have them record news in their communities for WAH—everybody wants to be heard! And seen!

LinkedIn Performance

Page Followers: 456
New Followers: 81
Page Impressions: 7,776
Page Reach: 3,315 connections
Posts: 134
Post Engagement: 7.7%
Post Impressions: 8,491
Post Shares: 42

Insights: LinkedIn is showing steady engagement and visibility, with:

A growing follower base (81 new followers), indicating a steady increase in interest.
A strong engagement rate (7.7%), showing that content is performing well among LinkedIn’s professional audience.
Relatively high post shares (42), suggesting that content is being circulated beyond direct followers.

Recommendations:

Expand connections: Use facilitator lists (reported on in Wiki Loves Africa’s social media analysis here) to expand connections. We could also try cross posting diff articles onto LinkedIn, rather than sharing the links. Or at least a large section of Diff articles. Our LinkedIn platform could become our greatest communications asset with other platforms like X in decline. With all projects under one Wiki In Africa umbrella, we could have more visibility and reach for every project, but it would require collaboration from project facilitators to make the connections across the different project audiences. To drive this, we could cross-promote LinkedIn content on other platforms, but it would need to be original content not available on any other social media platform.

Key Challenges & Recommendations

X (Twitter) is becoming less effective for reach, but engagement remains strong

Mentions and engagement are up, but impressions and new followers have plummeted due to the Wikimedia community shift away from the platform and X paid account policies.
Solution: Maintain a presence but shift focus to more engaged platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and build our account on the new social media platforms like Bluesky) for better visibility and engagement.

Facebook is performing well, but audience growth is slowing

Impressions, reach, and engagement are increasing, but new followers have declined.
Solution: Boost outreach and content variety—increase video content (especially reels), collaborate with similar pages, and encourage audience participation. It is a concern that use may be declining in social media overall.

LinkedIn has strong engagement and growth potential

The platform is driving high-quality engagement and shares, making it valuable for connecting with professionals and organisations.
Solution: Leverage and build a LinkedIn network with connections across all projects.

Content Strategy Needs More Multimedia and Interactivity

Engagement across platforms indicates that visual content (videos, reels, lives) is key to sustaining interest.
Solution: Expand the use of short videos, behind-the-scenes insights, and storytelling posts to make content more dynamic and shareable.

Credits

Compiled by

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

Wiki Loves Africa 2024

Context

2024 Goals

Activities

2024 Impact

Key moments

Community Engagement

Communications

Read more

Wiki Loves Women 2024

Context

2024 Goals

Activities

Key moments (stand out stories; awards; etc.)

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

Communications

Wiki Loves Women Social Media and Communications

2024 Impact

Impact of Wiki Loves Women over 5 years

Read more (diff posts, blog posts, external coverage)

WikiAfrica Hour 2024

Context

2024 Goals

Activities

Key moments

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

Communications

The communication campaign BEFORE the episode:

The communication campaign AFTER the episode:

Some quantitative data

2024 Impact

Read more (diff posts, blog posts, external coverage)

ISA Tool

Context

2024 Goals

Activities

ISA campaigns organised by Wiki In Africa

ISA campaigns organised by various wikimedia community members

Wiki Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024

Tutorials and how toes

Key moments (stand out stories; awards; etc.)

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

Conferences

Wiki Mentor Africa ISA Hackathon 2024

Communications

Social media engagement

Email outreach

2024 Impact

Metrics by Queries

Read more (diff posts, blog posts, external coverage)

WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique

Context

2024 Goals

Activities

Key moments (stand out stories; awards; etc.)

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

Communications

2024 Impact

Read more (diff posts, blog posts, external coverage)

2025 ahead

WikiLearn “Propriété Intellectuelle et Creative Commons”

Context

2024 Goals

Activities

Community Engagement (surveys, meetings, events, presentations)

2025 ahead

Wiki In Africa Communications Wins

Wiki In Africa Social Media

WikiAfrica Hour

2024 Wiki In Africa Social Media Analysis

X (formerly Twitter) Performance

Facebook Performance

LinkedIn Performance

Key Challenges & Recommendations

Credits