Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Loves Women/Event Toolkit/Context
About Wiki Loves Women
[edit]Wiki In Africa's Wiki Loves Women project was created in 2016 to ensure that women and men are introduced to the problem that is inherent in the lack of representation for Africa’s women online and to provide the tools to close these gaps. The project empowers women and gender-sensitised men to be active participants in knowledge creation and not just passive receptors of the status quo. Over 2016-7, the programme was run intensively in 4 countries in Africa with direct training, mentorship and project management support. The results of the project can be found here.
In January 2016, Wiki Loves Women launched in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria through a host of local and global events. Its primary goal was to encourage participation and facilitate the contribution of quality information on and about African women to be published on, and made widely available via, Wikipedia.
In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in 2016 and early 2017, the project encouraged the contribution of existing information from Civil Society Organisations and gender-equality groups to Wikipedia. The content that was collected and created specifically focused on women’s contribution to the political, economic, scientific, cultural and heritage landscape, and the current socio-political status of women, in each country. It also strongly encouraged the activation and support of new and existing editors (both female and gender-sensitised male Wikipedians).
Simultaneously, the project impacted hugely on the strength, skills and numbers of the local volunteer groups. The direct impact included:
- a better understanding of how Wikimedia projects operate
- more visibility in their country
- consolidated Wikimedia group structure (eg, in Cameroon and Ghana)
- leadership roles and increased capacity for women within the local teams (especially, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana)
- significant increase in numbers of women involved in the project both as partners and as Wikipedia editors
- more awareness and contact with the international Wikimedia community (Cameroon’s volunteers became a UserGroup; Nigeria became involved with WMF over readership access; Ghana gained several partnerships with gender based institutions including Africa Women's Development Fund, Women Who Code, Fabulous Women Network, Tech Needs Girls, etc.; the Cote d’Ivoire team attended Wikimedia Francophone Conference and later created WikiMousso to extend the work done on WLW).
These were all elements that were not apparent before the start of the project.
Finally, a massive boost to local groups came in the long-lasting relationships that were created between the local Goethe-Instituts and the Wikimedia groups in each country. These relationships have strengthened over the year with WM groups being given venue and logistical support for a number of events.
The specific actions of the project can also be viewed on the Wiki Loves Women website and on the [[en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Loves Women|project page in English] and the . Work in Nigeria can be viewed through a documentary from Germany's 3Sat.
Wiki In Africa is a non-profit organisation that operates global initiatives in support of the WikiAfrica movement. Our objective is to empower and engage citizens (especially the women and girls) of Africa and its diaspora to collect, develop and contribute educational and relevant content that relates to the theme of Africa under a free license; and to engage in global knowledge systems by encouraging access to, awareness of, and support for open knowledge, the open movement and the Wikimedia projects, working in collaboration with like-minded organisations.