Wikimedia User Group Nigeria/2025 Strategic plan

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2025 Strategic Plan

The Wikimedia User Group Nigeria was established in September 2015 as a community of Wikimedians that connects educators, students, journalists, and other professionals to promote free access to knowledge in Nigeria through Wikipedia and other sister projects. Prior to our official recognition as a Wikimedia User Group and affiliate of the WMF, our vision was to be recognized as the point of contact for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in Nigeria. Our members recognized the importance of partnerships in achieving our collective objectives, and we have partnered with more than 100 mission-aligned organizations over the past 9 years. These partnerships have included educational institutions, advocacy groups, media organizations, government agencies, and commissions, as well as other mission-aligned entities.

In the past three years, Wikimedia User Group Nigeria has become a more professional organization, growing from zero staff support to at least three staff members and four experienced volunteers working as an integral part of the management team of the organisation . We have received three general support funds, which the organization has successfully managed, with reports well-documented.Recently, the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria established a micro-grant program to support its members across the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and significantly minimize the burden of direct grant applications to the foundation. This program has been largely successful and has attracted many new contributors to Wikimedia projects through the various programs and activities organized by hundreds of the recipients of our micro-grants. We have, and will continue to, attract more members from diverse professional backgrounds to the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria community.

We also have specialized programs, such as the Wiki-in-School program, targeting specific professionals in academia, Wiki Fan Club; instituting wikipedia learning environment in Nigeria tertiary institutions and we have successfully implemented a GLAM project, the Nigerian Oral History Documentation Program, in which audiovisuals produced from the project have been donated to several academic institutions as a strategy to bridge the gap between academia and the Wikimedia community. We continue to support our growing community through various capacity-building programs and by creating content related to Nigeria through edit-a-thons, contests, and campaigns. These efforts have collectively helped to increase both the quantity and quality of content on Wikipedia. We have increased the readership of Wikipedia from Nigeria through the various advocacy and awareness campaigns we have conducted over the years.

This document outlines Wikimedia User Group Nigeria's strategic plan for 2025. The programs and activities scheduled during this period will align with the strategies detailed in this plan.

Mission and vision

We envisioned to become the point of contact for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in Nigeria and to become a major hub for the development and promotion of free knowledge in Nigeria.

Our mission is to support and promote free access to knowledge, work with volunteers across the country, partner with governmental and non-governmental organisations, cultural and educational sectors and other mission aligned groups to make knowledge available for free access.

Objectives

Promote Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in Nigeria
Increase the quality and quantity of Nigeria related topics that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
Support the growth, development and distribution of free educational materials in Nigeria
Partner with education based organization including the government to create educational contents and its free distribution
Support the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation
Support the use of the Wikimedia projects as important tools for education and learning in Nigeria

Operative principles

Promote the values inherent in the concept of open knowledge
Recognize transparency as a key factor in every growth and development
Committed to the ideal of free access to knowledge
Ensure that contents released for educational purpose is with high level of accuracy
Promote the use of licences, formats and sources that support open knowledge
Committed to promoting the provision of high quality open knowledge to everyone
Recognize that the contribution of volunteers is central to our activities, growth and development.
Committed to encouraging, involving and engaging members of our community
Learn from and openly share our learning with the global Wikimedia movement
Transparent in our operations
Support, encourage and promote diversity within our community
Become an independent Nigeria not-for-profit organization that engages actively with the global movement

Strategic priorities

1. Bridging Content Gaps

One of our main objectives is to bridge Nigeria-related content gaps on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. This will be achieved by organizing various content-driven projects such as article writing competitions, campaigns, photography competitions, and edit-a-thons. We will also participate in international contests such as the WPWP Campaign, 1Lib1Ref, Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Folklore, and many others organized within the Wikimedia movement. These activities will be partnership-driven, meaning they will be used as tools to attract potential partners who focus are in thematic areas of each event and will be implemented in collaboration with them.

We we also continue to create our oral history audivisuals. This documentation of rare knowledge has helped to bridge the gap between our community and academic institutions.

We will also adopt the following strategies and approaches to achieve these objectives:

Building capacity for volunteers, both existing and new editors, to effectively contribute content.
Providing micro-grant support for activities related to bridging content gaps.
Providing various technical support for the creation and growth of new Wikimedia projects in Nigerian languages.
Collaborating with content partners to release their materials for use on Wikimedia projects.
Conducting and facilitating edit-a-thons and other types of contribution workshops for Wikimedia projects.
Organizing photographic events, such as photo walks in Nigeria, to contribute high-quality photographs to Wikimedia Commons

2. Capacity-building

We recognize that capacity-building is an integral part of community growth. Community members must have the necessary skills to effectively create new content, improve existing content, and mentor new contributors. This capacity-building will be prioritized and achieved through the following strategies:

Organize monthly training sessions for our community members.
Design audiovisual training materials to support learning by new editors.
Provide technical support for our community members, fan clubs, and networks organizing training sessions or workshops.
Provide micro-grant support for projects that focus on capacity-building.
Design and introduce community members to new and existing tools that make contributions to Wikimedia projects easier.
Design an education program to engage lecturers on the use of Wikipedia.

3. Advocacy

Our advocacy programs FTY 2025 would focus on the Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023 and advocacy against misinformation. For the Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023, we want to do a comprehensive review of the law to know how it would impacts our work as a community and contributors to Wikimedia projects.

The advocacy against misinformation will involve using verifiable information to educate the public and promote digital literacy. We will partner with broadcasters, content creators, skit makers, and educators within and outside our network to enhance public awareness of reliable information sources and empower individuals to identify and combat misinformation effectively.

The following strategies would be adopted for the Data Protection Act of 2023 advocacy works

Working Group - We will set up a working group of experienced Wikimedians, copyright experts and lawyers. We will rely on the experience and expertise of these tripartites committees for the review.
Clear timeline - A specific timeline with deadlines for achieving certain goals will be established, and regular meetings will be held to review progress and ensure these goals are being met according to the schedule.
Stakeholder engagement - We will identify relevant stakeholders and engage them in the review process to ensure their input and perspectives are considered.
Social media - We will use both traditional media and social media to draw attention of the public to certain provisions of the law and advocate for changes where necessary."
Monitoring and Evaluation: We will track the progress of our activities. We have a dedicated staff to manage that. He will develop mechanisms to monitor the progress of advocacy efforts and the implementation of the national language policy.

The following strategies would be adopted for the misinformation advocacy

Partnership : We will partner with Nigeria data protection Commission (NDPC), broadcasters, content creators, skit makers, and educators within and outside our network to enhance public awareness of reliable information sources and empower individuals to identify and combat misinformation effectively.
Capacity building and workshops - We will organize several capacity building and workshops to educate the public on how to identify and fight misinformation.
Public Awareness and Campaigns: We will leverage our media partners and social media to raise awareness of the problems and the need to address the identified gaps. We will design various materials, including audiovisuals, to create awareness and ensure they reach a wider audience.
Monitoring and Evaluation: We will track the progress of our activities. We have a dedicated staff to manage that. He will develop mechanisms to monitor the progress of advocacy efforts and the implementation of the national language policy.

4. Awareness Campaign

There is a concern about the level of Wikipedia readership between Nigeria and South Africa. A statistical overview from Wikipedia shows that readership in South Africa is twice that of Nigeria. The figure is in sharp contrast to the population in both countries. As of 2023, there are over 220 million people in Nigeria, while over 62 million reside in South Africa. For example, in 2023, Nigeria recorded a readership of 37 million people, while South Africa recorded 58 million. The literacy level in Nigeria is 77%, while South Africa accounts for 90%. We strongly believe that the difference in the literacy level should not account for such a gap. This significant gap in readership in Nigeria is our intrinsic motivation for prioritizing awareness programs this year to drive readership to Wikimedia projects from Nigeria.

The following strategic approach will be adopted to achieve these objectives:

Design an animated video and promote it to reach a wider audience, who will, in turn, learn about Wikipedia and visit it.
Partner with government agencies, including the National Orientation Agency, to achieve our objectives.
Engage skit makers to visually appealing content that will drive readership to Wikimedia projects.
Collaborate with social media influencers to promote this content

5. Community engagement

Our community is diverse and comprises members from different language and religious backgrounds. Every member of our community will be engaged in our activities, regardless of age, gender, sex, religion, language, or ethnicity. This includes people living with disabilities.

The following strategies will be prioritized:

Community members will be invited through our communication channels to participate in our activities.
We will design specialized programs targeting certain groups, such as women and people living with disabilities, to ensure they are equally engaged.
We will prioritize activities that promote community engagement.
Tasks will be assigned to community members, and these will be monitored for effective delivery.
We will create an enabling environment for community members to participate in our programs without fear of harassment. We will leverage the Universal Code of Conduct to manage conduct issues effectively

6. GLAM Project

This year, we want to collaborate with some GLAM institutions, particularly the National Library of Nigeria, Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, and some museums and galleries. This is to ensure the diversity of our contributions and content contributed to Wikimedia projects.

The following strategy will be adopted:

Engage our members who are librarians in identifying core areas of focus.
Implement Wikipedia-in-Residence programs in some of these institutions.
Donate our oral history audiovisuals to these institutions as a strategy to get them interested in donating content from their archives.
Build capacity for library, gallery, and museum staff on how to contribute to Wikimedia projects.
Promote these collaborations in conventional media and on social media

7. Membership registry and database

We want to build a robust infrastructure to support our group's membership. In the past, we have not designed a sustainable registry for our members, making it difficult to effectively monitor community growth and sustainability. We will Maintain an accurate and up-to-date registry and database that would help in managing our member information, tracking their engagement, and supporting communication efforts. We want to prioritize effective management of our membership. Our community members include long-time editors, storytellers, librarians, academics, journalists, students, activists, senior citizens, developers, and artists, each of whom has their own passion for free knowledge and motivations for engaging with Wikimedia projects broadly and the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria community.

To grow and develop our community, Wikimedia User Group Nigeria must establish a more structured database for members, strengthen individual engagement with the group's activities, and provide more opportunities for taking up leadership roles. This requires a robust infrastructure built in response to community needs.

We will put infrastructure in place to advance our broad objectives of growing a large and productive number of contributors to Wikimedia projects.

8. Partnerships

In the past 8 years, we have collaborated and partnered with several mission-aligned organization but we were not able to sustain many of these partnership because of the lack of resources. We will reactivate these partnerships and the following strategy and approach will be adopted in reactivating existing partnerships and building a new one.

We will contact existing partners for collaborations on our proposed projects. This would not only helped to reactivate our relationship with them but also impacts on the overall outcomes of our programs.
We will ensure that our partnership are diversified. We will focus on organizations whose mission aligned with Wikimedia’s mission, such as educational institutions such as universities, colleges, Non-Govermental organizations, cultural heritage institutions, and tech organizations. We will prioritize local and regional partners who have interests in the Nigerian context and Nigerian language preservation.
We have an office space for training, as many of our partners in the past did not have training centers to support our activities. Now we will take this burden away from them and have them use our training centers for various mission aligned activities, including trainings for their staff members and networks. We will also contact new partners to support our activities.
We will identify areas of support and engagement for these partners.

Resources allocation

Resources will be allocated to support our dynamic and growing communities in several key areas. Funding will be allocated for micro-grants to continue to support small-scale projects and activities that enhance engagement and contribute to our broad mission. Resources will also be dedicated to establishing and nurturing new and existing fan clubs, and networks which will promote community involvement and support for our projects. Resources would be allocated for staff supports who coordinate our community activities and programs. Resources will be allocated for the development and implementation of various programs designed to drive community engagement, contents creation, partnerships, capacity building and and the overall growth within our communities. Funding will be allocated for operational costs to ensure the smooth and efficient running of our programs. Resources will be allocated to monitoring and evluating ongoing projects to track project progress, identify challenges in order to make data-driven decisions for future ideas and growth. Finally, efforts will be made to enhance community engagement strategies, ensuring that members remain actively involved and invested in our projects. This comprehensive allocation of resources aims to strengthen our communities, support their growth, and ensure the successful execution of our various programs.

9 Others

Wikimedia Nigeria comprises ten independent units where Wikimedia community-related activities occur across the 35 states and Federal Capital Territory. Its executive members lead each of the units.

List of Networks and Fan Clubs

Anambra network in Anambra state
Imo Network in Imo state
Gombe Network in Gombe State
Kaduna Network
Osun State Network
Lagos State University Fan Club
Univesity of Ibadan, Oyo state
University of Ilorin, Kwara State
Kwara State University Fan Club
Gombe University Fan Club

The units form the basis for executing Wikimedia Nigeria's Annual Plan activities. In this regard, annually, there is a need to develop a strategic plan with a guide to direction and execution with the buying in of all the components units in the community.

Strategty

We plan to organise Executive retreat at the begining of the Financial year to meet with all the lead of each of the units across the country to discuss about the annual plan and also attend to various issues affecting each community. This could involve capacity development to help upskill the leaders in some of the challenging areas of their operations.