Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub/Annual Plan 2025-26

Overview

This proposal outlines the second-year plan for the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub, building on last year’s work and the evolving theory of change, aligned with the 2030 Recommendation to Ensure Equity in Decision-making. Our mission remains clear: to activate and support underrepresented language communities, particularly those in the Incubator and post-Incubator stages.

We aim to work closely with nine communities, offering tailored support, learning from their experiences, and strengthening connections between the Wikimedia Foundation, Affiliates, and Regional Hubs already advancing language inclusion. To deepen our impact, we plan to transition from three limited-scope facilitators to four empowered staff members, while also strengthening internal governance through a newly formed steering committee and a growing membership model.

This document outlines four targeted goals, each backed by clear performance indicators (KPIs) several tied directly to the communities we aim to serve, namely the nine selected for this intervention period, unless stated otherwise.

Strategic Goals

Empowerment & Inclusion Ensure that all language communities—especially those that are underrepresented, indigenous, or minority—feel welcomed and included in the Wikimedia movement. The Hub aims to amplify community voices, provide platforms for dialogue, and ensure equitable representation in decision-making and resource access.

This proposal strategically targets projects in the incubator and post-incubator stages, specifically phases 2, 3, and 4, as outlined in this journey graph develop by the WMF Language Team, where support is more needed.

We prioritize communities that are often left behind, those where internet access is inequitable, poverty makes volunteering a privilege, and dominant oral languages remain digitally underserved. According to our 2023 research, these access-challenged communities are disproportionately concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, the Pacific (ESEAP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEECA).

KPIs
1. Nine language communities represented in mentorship calls or consultations.
2. Of those nine, at least 6 demonstrate consistent growth in active editors or editing activity over a 6-month period.
3. Growth of monthly active editors, measured from the third month of intervention.
4. Six testimonials or stories from underrepresented communities documented and shared publicly.

Sustainable Growth for Language Communities Create systems and support mechanisms that enable long-term engagement and retention of emerging communities. This includes mentorship, funding access, and building leadership capacity within each community.

This mechanism is designed to uplift communities that are currently in the Incubator but facing challenges, as well as recent graduates who need continued, hands-on support.

Of the nine communities we aim to assist, we will use initial assessment calls to pinpoint where each stands on their journey, allowing us to deliver targeted interventions, whether through technical mentorship, community-building strategies, funding opportunities, or stronger local connections.

KPIs
1. Assessment calls with nine language communities to develop a growth plan according to their needs.
2. Follow-up support provided to at least two incubator graduates within 6 months of launch.
3. Three communities will receive tailored technical mentorship, whether they're navigating the incubator, engaging with MediaWiki, or actively contributing to Wikimedia projects.
4. Two communities receiving direct support in applying for or securing funding from the WMF, specifically with Rapid Grants.

Capacity & Technical Support Building on the 2023 research, which exposed shortcomings for undeserved communities in content and interface translations, template creation and usage, MediaWiki backdoor, and coordination with other wiki projects, we aim to offer community-specific technical assistance and capacity building through mentorship calls, onboarding processes, workshops, and documentation.

In that sense, we look to collaborate closely with the WMF Language Team to drive forward their 2025–26 Annual Plan, that also highlights a focus on social interventions that empower communities to share experiences in editing, governance, translation tools, and beyond.

We also plan to partner with Affiliates and Regional Hubs to co-develop joint services that identify emerging or recently graduated Incubator projects in need of support, and collaboratively design strategic work plans to sustain their growth.

KPIs
1. Bring one or two WMF Language Team staff members onto the Steering Committee (SC) to serve as strategic liaisons, strengthening coordination between WMF and Hub-led initiatives.
2. Train a minimum of three future or current sysops from underserved communities, equipping them with foundational knowledge of wiki structure and hands-on MediaWiki operations.
3. Facilitate 3 direct collaborations, like workshops, to targeted communities with WMF Language Team during their Fiscal Year, starting in September 2025.
4. Lead collaboration with affiliates to develop at least two joint services for targeted communities during the fiscal year, starting with Steering Committee members while actively engaging other Affiliates and Regional Hubs.
5. Leverage a dedicated $5,000 USD micro-grant fund to support essential technology needs, particularly desktops, laptops and mobile packages, for all nine target communities, based on priorities identified in our 2023 report.

Community-centered Governance Build an agile and transparent governance model where members, through the General Assembly, drive the agenda. Steering Committee decisions are informed by regular mentorship calls and consultations, ensuring the structure remains accountable, participatory, and grassroots-oriented.
1. KPIs
  1. The Steering Committee meets at least once per quarter, with ⅔ quorum of attendance across all members.
  2. The Steering Committee oversees the work of the dedicated staff and mentors and identify any necessary course corrections during the year.
  3. Maintain or expand geographic and linguistic diversity in the Steering Committee, with representation from at least 3 regions or language groups.
  4. Collaborating with Steering Committee Affiliates and partners like Regional Hubs to identify underserved project communities, to work on mentorships, piloting onboarding materials and co-creating toolkits or case studies.

Projects

Mentorships

Description: Identify community leaders from nine language projects already in the incubator or recently graduated, Assign them mentors, and help them through Wiki challenges in three-month cycles (Tochi, Sadik, Jon and Oscar, can each mentor one person per cycle)

Mentorships will follow a four-quarter structure. In Q1, we focus on diagnosing community challenges and co-creating actionable plans aligned with their goals, whether sustaining volunteer growth, increasing platform contributions, or other agreed metrics. Q2 and Q3 center on execution: delivering tailored workshops, deepening technical support, and driving progress. In Q4, we assess the impact of the intervention, identifying what worked, what needs refinement, and what should be retired.

Frequency: maintain consistent mentor–mentee contact, ideally on a weekly basis, while remaining flexible to accommodate the volunteer time available for calls and project.

Output: Mentorship Reports (per community leaders). Community Case Studies documenting the journey of mentees at two points, specially after Q2 and after Q4.

Topical workshops

Description: Topic-based workshops for anyone to ask questions, seek help about a specific aspect of Wiki work. These workshops can be in collaboration with other stakeholders, namely teams at the WMF developing or supporting a specific tool (ie. Wikifunctions), or an Affiliate working in a language intervention.

Frequency: Biweekly (2x/month, each accommodating different time zone ranges)

Output: Record sessions and upload to Wikimedia Commons and YouTube.

Engagement Hours

Description: Elevate community meetings to introduce the hub's interventions and mentoring. People can participate by leaving their feedback live or through different tools such as EasyRetro.

Frequency: Quarterly.

Output: Gather and analyze feedback, record sessions and upload to Wikimedia Commons and YouTube.

Networking/social calls

Description: Group calls where mentoring communities can share what they’re working on, and what they challenges are. We aim to foster a community of practice with communities supported and ideally create a sense of partnership between them.

Frequency: Monthly, rotating through 3 different time zones ranges.

Output: Gather and systematize notes from these meetings, there will not be recorded.

Metrics for growth

According to our 2023 report, many of the traditional metrics used to assess wiki development may not adequately reflect the needs of projects in the Incubator or those that have only recently graduated. We acknowledge the need for more in-depth research to determine which metrics best capture the full picture. This is why we selected these nine communities, to evaluate how effectively these metrics support the growth of emerging projects.

1. Participation & Reach

Metric: Number of participants engaged in mentorship calls, engagement hours, and workshops

Target: 100 unique participants across all activities
Disaggregate by: region, language community, gender (if applicable), and newcomer vs. returning participant

Rationale: Tracks how inclusive and far-reaching the Hub's efforts are. Aligns with strategic goals on empowerment and inclusion.

2. Language Community Support

Metric: Number of incubator or underrepresented language communities supported

Target: 9 communities provided with direct mentorship, and technical support. Each mentor can take one individual per cycle, ending in a support of up to 12 mentees by year-end.
Sub-metrics: number of mentorship sessions per community, number of technical interventions (e.g., localization support, tool access)

Rationale: Evaluates the Hub’s effectiveness in fostering sustainable growth and offering tailored capacity-building.

3. Content & Knowledge Production

Metric: Content on supported Wikipedias or other sister projects. The metric will be decided on in discussion with the supported communities.

Targets:

% growth in number of articles.
% growth in number of contributors
% growth in number of edits.
Wikidata or Commons content creation.

Rationale: Reflects the communities’ content production capacities, and gives an insight into variation across communities. The goal is not to create a competition between communities (although there is a risk that might happen, and we need to control that), but it can be a tool to evaluate what factors make some communities more productive than others. Allowing the communities to decide on the metrics also gives us a better understanding of what is more important for them.

Core Roles

Global Hub Coordinator

Function: Oversees daily operations, coordinates capacity-building, mentorship calls, manages communications, supervises support team activities, and serves as liaison to technical partners.

Oversight/Reporting Line: Reports to the Steering Committee (SC), which provides strategic oversight and conducts performance reviews.

Support Team

Function; Mentors guide new language communities; manage translations and outreach, builds partnerships strategy and give community technical support logistics. Support the Global Hub Coordinator in delivering training and consultations.

Oversight/Reporting Line: Supervised by the Global Hub Coordinator and report to the Steering Committee (SC), who aligns their roles with Hub priorities and monitors task completion.

Steering Committee (SC)

Function: Guides strategic direction of the Hub, supervises the Global Hub Coordinator and the Support Team, evaluate their performance against KPIs; if they fall short, we’ll collaborate to identify obstacles, provide support, or reassess their trajectory, reviews reports, and defines goals.

Oversight/Reporting Line: Elected by Members; accountable to the General Assembly; meets monthly with the Global Hub Coordinator and the Support Team. .

Members (via General Assembly)

Function: community-wide consultation and engagement space.

Annual Activities (July 2025 – June 2026)

July 2025

Key Activities:
- Setting up the new work team (Global Hub Coordinator and Support Team)
- Launch mentorship: Identify nine incubator language communities for mentorship via internal mapping and open call.
- Onboard new Steering Committee members: forge connections with the regions they represent, evaluate their services for strategic alignment, and position the Hub as a catalyst for impact.
- Exploratory calls to co-develop a targeted work plan with the WMF Language Team
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

August

Key Activities:
- Engagement hour #1: introduction to Hub, listening to community needs)
- Initial outreach to communities
- Map the needs of mentoring communities, then strategically assign mentors equipped to guide them—laying the groundwork for sustainable, long-term solutions
- Work alongside Steering Committee members to work in tailoring language interventions in their regions.
- Language Diversity Conference ideation workshop.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

September

Key Activities:
- Finalize workshop training calendar based on mentorship call inputs
- Introduce the bid for the Language Diversity Conference of Ghana in 2026.
- Publish hub newsletter with incubator outreach summary.
- Launch first social intervention collaboration alongside the WMF Language Team.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator, Support Team & WMF Language Team

October

Key Activities;
- Workshop 1: e.g., grant writing or MediaWiki/Incubator basics.
- Steering Committee and Coordinator strategy call sync-up.
- Form task force with Steering Committee to explore trends in language innovation.
- Reviewing mentees: aligning support and take action if the mark was not reached.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

November

Key Activities:
- Engagement hour #2: focus on technical and community-building support.
- Launch first round of travel and technical matchmaking fund for mentees and wider movement.
- Program Committee set-up: Language Diversity Conference 2026
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

December

Key Activities:
- Launch End-of-Year Impact Report on Diff.
- Mid of year review of goals and metrics with Steering Committee, evaluate mentorship performance against annual KPIs.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

January 2026

Key Activities:
- Launch second cycle of research initiative of travel and technical matchmaking funds.
- Launch a second social intervention collaboration alongside the WMF Language Team.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator, Support Team & WMF Language Team

February

Key Activities:
- Engagement Hour #3: focus: tools and localization support)
- Mapping second cohort of underrepresented incubator projects.
- Reviewing mentees: aligning support and take action if the mark was not reached.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

March

Key Activities:
- Workshop 2: e.g., institutional partnerships, Wikidata basics.
- Update on research outcomes
- Midterm feedback collection
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

April

Key Activities:
- Host Engagement Hour #5
- Launch third social intervention collaboration alongside the WMF Language Team.
- Preparation for General Assembly
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator, Support Team & WMF Language Team

May

Key Activities:
- Workshop #3: focus: preparing for long-term sustainability:
- Planning for new Steering Committee rotation, open calls for new seats with the members, ahead of the General Assembly.
- Share updates from mentees: assets, what went well, what could be improved and what should stay the same for the next cycle, post on Diff.
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

June 2026

Key Activities:
- General Assembly: review strategic goals, elect new Steering Committee
- Host Engagement Hour #6
- Publish Annual Report
Responsible(s): Global Hub Coordinator & Support Team

Governance

Steering Committee and Roles

In the second year of this grant’s implementation, we aim to establish a strong, collaborative Steering Committee led by Wikitongues, Wikimedia UK, Dagbani Wikimedians, Igbo Wikimedians, and Rising Voices, with additional insight from observers representing Wikimedia Colombia, Wikimedia Indonesia, and key staff from the Wikimedia Foundation.

Internal structure

We have established a governance system similar to a members' assembly, drawing on a model that many participants are already familiar with through their affiliated groups. As part of this structure, we’ve developed a set of metrics that the Steering Committee can use to regularly assess how effectively the staff is implementing the strategic plan and to identify any necessary course corrections. The committee also holds full authority to appoint or remove individuals from key roles if objectives are not being met or if irresolvable issues arise.

At the same time, we are committed to empowering individual members to engage in our activities and take an active role in the general assembly. During these assemblies, we plan to elect or re-elect members of the Steering Committee, with the goal of building a strong, inclusive leadership. We also aim to develop onboarding materials for new committee members and for others who wish to become part of the hub’s structure