Afrika Baraza/Africa Agenda
The Africa Agenda
The Africa Agenda is a document that captures the challenges and problems faced by the Wikimedia Communities in Africa. Although Africa is highly diverse, there are certain significant commonalities that underlie some of the issues experienced across the continent. The Africa Agenda aims to unite the goals that the continent wishes to address, offering a systematic approach to dealing with these issues. In early 2023, the Afrika Baraza was established as a platform for African Wikimedians to gather and discuss the issues to be collated in the Africa Agenda. This forum has played a crucial role in shaping conversations and will continue to be instrumental in the implementation of the Africa Agenda and other relevant topics throughout 2024.
Background
WikiIndaba is an annual gathering where Wikimedia communities from across Africa come together to deliberate on the pressing challenges and opportunities for the region. It is a dynamic forum where participants delve into existing and emergent issues, seeking collaborative solutions that can empower these communities and enrich the African Wikimedia landscape. During WikiIndaba 2022 in Rwanda, a significant outcome emerged - the call for WISCom to expand its responsibilities beyond its existing scope to address other underrepresented problem areas and issues across the continent. It was clear to many that despite the diverse range of challenges encountered by different regions within Africa, there were notable commonalities in the issues confronting them. This recognition of shared struggles reinforced the notion that concerted action could lead to more effective solutions. In response to this consensus, the Wikimedia Foundation, in collaboration with WISCom, took proactive steps to enhance engagement and sustained dialogue beyond the confines of WikiIndaba. The result is the establishment of the Afrika Baraza, a virtual forum that now facilitates quarterly discussions, ongoing engagement, and follow-ups related to WikiIndaba matters. A key objective of the Afrika Baraza is to curate the Africa Agenda, a comprehensive document that encapsulates the collective wisdom and recommendations of African Wikimedia communities. This document will serve as a guiding light, aiding stakeholders in addressing the shared challenges and opportunities identified during WikiIndaba gatherings, thus ensuring sustained progress.
Overview of the Movement in Africa
In 2022, the total content contribution from SSA region in all Wikimedia projects was at 2% of the global total, similarly, the share of active editors was at 2% of the global total, despite the region contributing about 15% of the global population and growing. In the last quarter of 2023, the foundation started a disaggregated monitoring of editorship and contribution trends coming from the region, to inform future interventions.
At the end of FY22/23, there were 28 Affiliates in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) who reported 876 members. Newcomers are also two times likely to come from Africa according to the latest Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) survey conducted by the foundation.
Challenges, Needs, & Proposed Solutions
Levels of awareness of the movement’s governance structure remain low as well; consequently, African Wikimedians continue to miss out on global conversations and discourse on matters of movement governance.
According to feedback shared in two editions of the Africa Baraza that sought to find out why Africans are not engaging in global conversations; the majority of respondents cited that they are not aware of the spaces these conversations are happening and when they are needed to show up and also the specific input required. Some potential areas of participation for consideration include:
- WMF Board of Trustees - One of the areas the movement in Africa feels underrepresented is in the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Never have Africans sat on this board, which often reflects a lack of the principle of diversity that our movement is built upon or strives to achieve.
- Participation in Global Events/ Dialogues - Africa’s participation in global events and dialogues in our movement continues to be a major pain point for the region. For example, the inability to participate at the Wikimedia Summit due to visa issues may have affected participation in processes like the Movement Strategy. Communities continue to cite various barriers including community biases, visa restrictions, lack of awareness, unequal regional allocation of scholarships, and other resourcing needs.
- Leadership and Community Building - African Wikimedians, and particularly leaders in the movement, have been vocal about the need for support in community building. There is a need for strategically curated and consistent interventions that take into account the unique needs of each community in the region. The needs of older communities and emerging ones for instance will often vary at various stages. For example one of the major challenges with newer communities is the lack of understanding of the landscape, best practices, and good governance.
- Regional Hubs - The majority of communities in Africa that engaged in the Movement Strategy Prioritization process were in favour of prioritizing regional hubs as a way of ensuring equity in representation and decision-making.
Presently, hubs are beginning to form across the movement either as thematic or regional.
In Africa, the proposed East African Regional and Thematic Hub (EARTH) is leading the formation of hubs in the region. WISCom has also been exploring the idea of becoming a hub. The Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) in August 2023 published the first set of drafts, outlining the structure for hubs.
What could the hubs roll-out in the region look like? How do we avoid duplication of roles?
This is a developing concept in the movement and as a region, we recognize the need for deeper conversations and strategies to align.
- Aligning with Global emerging issues - How should African Wikimedians engage with stakeholders on emerging issues that may affect the work we do presently or in the near future? Some of these issues include internet censorship, misinformation, and disinformation.
Proposed Solutions
- There should be a sensitization on Movement Governance Structures and Conversations - Levels of awareness of the movement’s governance structures remain low, and the conversation about the spaces where these future structures are happening is not known to Africans. There should also be a deliberate attempt to bring Africans along in ongoing governance conversations, and this may mean going the extra mile to post in spaces or use forums that are familiar to this region.
- Reconstitution of the election process and voting criteria for the board seats to a weighted percentage by regions - We have for the last decade been playing lip service about why the Wikimedia Foundation Board lacks African representation without deliberately designing the election process to make this a reality. We believe that the current system of voting is a popular contest and must change if we are serious about diversity of representation. The majority of active editors from our movement are from the West which is a reflection of the board today. Moving away from the current number of votes system, which favors the regions with the most numbers (West), to a weighted vote by regions which will ensure that no region by virtue of its numbers has an advantage over another region.
- Empowering autonomy - Consistently throughout the Africa Baraza, communities have cited the need to be empowered at the local level to engage authoritatively in such spaces. This could include:
- Conduct a needs assessment to inform approaches to Leadership capacity building, community engagement, and sensitization for each community in the region.
- WISCom, regional hubs, and other recognized groups are empowered to authoritatively represent and speak on behalf of its members.
- Leadership capacity building and convening - create organized spaces to bring leaders together.
- Create pathways for Knowledge transfer and regular support towards community building especially among volunteers that end up becoming staff of the WMF. For example, carving out a percentage of their working hours to support their communities and the region at large.
- Engaging Civil Society Organisations - Communities have expressed the need to go beyond the “wiki ecosystem” and engage with stakeholders that include governments and civil society organizations so that we are part of influencing policies around emerging issues such as the Africa Agenda 2030 Goals, AfLIA’s Plans for the librarian ecosystem in Africa, AU’s Great Africa Museum Project, etc.
Article and Editor Retention
It is a surprise for most Africans, to learn about the active editor numbers from the continent. In as much as these findings were alarming it is not isolated from learnings/lessons from our communities. Article and editor retention have been key topics of discussion at all previous WikiIndabas and we are still yet to solve this challenge.
Challenges with article and editor retention in Africa stem from two (2) main problem areas on the continent; skills & knowledge gap and a lack of an on-wiki support system (social support system).
Article Retention: Article Retention is when a created article is not maintained on Wikipedia because it is claimed/tagged to have not met the basic criteria for article writing in that specific article category. Article retention issues can be caused by a lack of understanding of the policies and the rudiments of contributing to the platforms or a lack of awareness from functionaries about the context of an article due to the perceived notability of (or lack thereof) the subject or the credibility of the reference/sources.
Editor Retention: Editor Retention is the inability of communities or the movement to maintain a volunteer and their interest in contributing to Wikimedia projects. This can be a result of many things including but not limited to burnout, lack of engagement & proper care, contributor blocks, IP blocks, article retention, etc.
Challenges/Frustrations
- Lack of Africans participating at a global scale (African Administrators) - The current Wikimedia admin stewardship has a lot of admins judging articles out of their contexts and regions. This could hamper successful notability checks among other article policies across Wikis. African admins should ideally be manning and scrutinizing content that is related to Africa to ensure fairness. There have been several instances where an article deserving to be on Wikipedia was nominated to be deleted due to lack of context and insight on the notability of the subject or credibility of a notable and reliable source.
- Lack of a learning culture - The lack of standardized training and resources to guide new recruits on what to know in the various stages of the volunteer journey can be detrimental to contributing to the Wikis. This leaves a lot of new contributors to self-learn, rely on other self-taught colleagues, and most often what comes their way. Self-learning can be useful in providing knowledge at a large scale but only beneficial when it is structured and guided. Relying on other self-taught colleagues who may have also learned by grappling with what came their way or through another self-taught person who learned the wrong way or didn’t make sense of the information learned, can create a cycle of uneducated volunteers within the movement. This has caused many to never come across some policies until they land themselves in trouble or led them to misinterpret policies.
- Lack of understanding of the policies - In terms of article curation, a lot of African Wikimedians don’t know much about Wikimedia policies on article writing which stems from the lack of a proper learning culture and available resources. For instance, a lot of African Wikimedians don’t know that there are various templates for different types of articles. The template followed while documenting a politician is different from that of an athlete, an academic, or a movie star. The variations need to be well taught across the African communities for people to understand how to navigate through it. Other policies that Africans are normally caught in the snares of are NPOV, Notability, Orphaned Articles, etc.
- IP Blocks - The IP block as elaborated above can be frustrating to editors and organizers and can cause frustration in either journey. An unresolved IP block issue can lead to a dropout along the volunteer journey and cause a loss to prospective or new recruits. The number one way we recruit in our movement today is through word of mouth and as they say, bad word travels fast. A major issue that needs a lasting solution
- Contributor Blocks - This normally occurs when a user is blocked from editing due to actions that administrators may perceive as misconduct or the lack of understanding of the fundamental principles of contributing to Wikimedia projects. It is often a sanction towards mistrust of the character or lack of goodwill for a volunteer's work. It normally occurs at the discretion of the Administrator sometimes without a wide consultative process on the goodwill or integrity of the volunteer. As explained from the lack of understanding of policies section, one may note that the culture of learning or initiating volunteers into the movement could be improved and possibly streamlined.
- Lack of belonging and a sense of community - The lack of a strong African community online/on Wiki leaves a lot of our community members wanting when they land themselves in crisis. This leaves a lot to be desired from our local communities and limits the amount of support one can get when required. Volunteers feel comfortable reaching out to familiar people from their regions and the absence of this can reduce the feeling of communal support. This feeling of a sense of belonging is needed in a virtual community like ours to be motivated and empowered that others are in this with you. This is the more reason why offline activities/events (edit-a-thons, conferences, etc.) are in the fiber of our existence but that sense of community must also be emulated online for people to want to be here.
- Not just Wikipedia, pick and choose what suits your journey - As a movement we know that Wikipedia by far is the largest project in the movement. However, it doesn’t mean it should be the only door through which everyone enters our home. We can agree that volunteers only contribute to initiatives and projects that are of keen interest to them. A phenomenon that can be tested through the surge of campaigns around topics for impact organizing. The lack of options stifles people's interest and over time causes retention issues.
- Burnout - Burnout can be caused by a series of frustrating events, the lack of a channel to vent and be heard, or exhaustion from being overworked. There are several circumstances listed above that can contribute to the frustration of volunteers which build up can cause burnout. Some of such issues are IP Block, article retention, and editor retention issues. A continuous feeling of such grievances not being heard or acted upon can lead to a desire to walk away.
Proposed Solutions
- Create a program to train and recruit the first crop of African Administrators - More experienced African editors should be nominated and voted into the stewardship and administrative whenever the call for nomination comes up. This can solve a lot of the issues mentioned in this document. As we create a program to look at this we must also review the process of selection to ensure it is designed to support equity and equal representation.
- Create and maintain the presence of an African community online - A huge number of persons in the African community only focus on their individual journeys and pay very little attention to what is happening around them. Writing the article is just not enough anymore, especially if we want to be serious about coverage of the continent and filling the gaps. We have to replicate the offline enabling environment we create for our editors online. This online support system will build trust and bolster confidence in our new recruits while providing practical support for problems related to article and editor retention.
- Developing a standardized onboarding process/experience for newbies - The lack of a learning culture can be corrupting as bad habits/broken knowledge can be unintentionally passed on to new recruits which can create a cycle of uneducated volunteers that can result in the aforementioned issues. Creating a standardized way of training newbies will bring confidence in the knowledge that is imparted (control on what is being thought) in our newbies and will ensure that what a newbie in Country A knows or is taught is the same thing that a newbie in Country B will also know. NB: The curriculum for such programs should not only focus on Wikipedia but also the many touch points within the movement that might interest prospective volunteers.
- Develop a skills Request Box - Just like we have the community wish list, the African Wikimedian communities should have a skills wish list or portal. This list should be connected to programs like let's connect or be accessible to mentors and mentees alike for easy pairing. We can also make the list accessible to mentors who are not African but are willing to help members of the African community up-skill.
- Offline connections are key - As much as we are a heavily virtual movement and community, the need for in-person interactions and editing events cannot be overemphasized. Creating environments that provide a personal connection (for example in-person editing events) can provide trust and tangibility for volunteers who require that to operate. It’s also good that community leaders warm up to new editors and try to create a face or a point of contact for the community. This shows warmth and solidarity in doing this together. Community leaders should have a culture of celebrating editors on their birthdays, as it helps them feel like they are part of a community that cares beyond the edits. Advocate to also put them in global and regional conferences/situations (like WikiIndaba, Wikimania, etc.) to make connections with some of these functionaries, it creates familiarity and networking which can go a long way to remove the barrier of trust in editing on the part of the functionary even when a mistake has been made.
- Presenting Wikimedia as a set of efficient tools that can amplify advocacy - Actors/Advocates/Activists and Civil Society Organisations who are already fighting for a cause and can utilize Wikimedia as a platform to document and create information about the cause (developing thematic projects & content-focused training). This can lead a new crop of professionals and volunteers to our platforms. Once relevance is established through this editor, recruitment can increase as well as retention.
- Understanding and supporting the diversity of background of our editors from the region - Creating programs that Impact the lives of our editors can also improve editor retention. Providing opportunities such as research scholarships, capacity building in 21st-century digital skills, and certificate-based empowerment programs that will improve the eligibility of our editors to attain jobs and improve their lives. Africa is a youthful continent and there is a growing unemployment gap so preparing our editors with these unique skills to be successful in their lives can capture their allegiance for the Wikimedia work. We must learn to sing to the tune or needs of our target region, a basic concept of the relationship which answers the question “what’s in it for them”. We must realize that Africa has issues with poverty, which affects many people's lives.
IP Blocks
Background
Wikimedia IP blocking is the practice of blocking an IP address or range of IP addresses from editing Wikipedia. This is done to protect the encyclopedia from vandalism, spam, and other forms of abuse. The block normally applies to the user's ability to edit and doesn’t restrict activities such as reading and viewing the encyclopedia.
The major cause or reason for IP Blocks from Africa is that it is allocated a small range in the global IP address allocation systems which leaves telecommunication companies very few opportunities to provide dynamic IPs. This means that a device has to hop onto different IPs and this unfortunate mechanism may land a user in a blocked range sometimes which blocks a legitimate user for no reason. There are mainly two types of Wikimedia IP blocks, namely local and global blocks.
Local Block: A local block is applied to a user (user accounts, IP addresses, or range of IP addresses) on a specific Wikimedia wiki, such as the English Wikipedia or the French Wikipedia for a definite or indefinite period of time.
Global Block: A global block is applied to a user (user accounts, IP addresses, or range of IP addresses) on all Wikimedia wikis for a definite or indefinite period of time.
Reasons for an IP Block:
- The IP address has been used to vandalize Wikipedia pages.
- The IP address has been used to spam Wikipedia pages.
- The IP address has been used to disrupt Wikipedia discussions.
- The IP address has been used to impersonate other users.
- The IP address has been used to break other Wikipedia policies.
Challenges/Frustrations
- Blocks can sometimes be meted out to legitimate users in error and reduce access to editing
- Blocks meted out to legitimate users can sometimes not be overturned because admins don’t have the right tools to unblock specific IPs in a range.
- Blocks reduce the enthusiasm of new editors and cause frustration with erroneous blocks on legitimate users which can lead to editor retention issues.
- Such frustration can cause victims to limit their participation in their communities or even in organizing (i.e. can be embarrassing for organizers running events).
- Many hours of volunteer time can be wasted in trying to engage an administrator to unblock, which is mostly unsuccessful.
- Africa does not have a say in matters pertaining to IP blocking because there are no African administrators in the big Wikipedia languages.
- Pushes majority away from the main languages Wikis which brings prioritized benefits to small African language Wikis. Even though somewhat a good thing for our language Wikis, this represents a loss for ensuring representation of the continent/Africa in the most read/relevant Wikipedia.
- English Wikipedia standards and how it does not reflect the needs of Africa - requiring sourcing and referencing to European sources, very little understanding and relevance of African sources, etc.
Current Solutions
- Request to be unblocked (not timely for an event happening, mostly unsuccessful)
- Submit a prior request for an IP range protection/unblock for the IP range of your event location.
- Create accounts before the event session.
- Acquire an IP block exemption user right
- Acquire and use the event coordinator user right to create accounts in a session
- Create a new account on a different Wiki when an IP Block issue occurs
Reasons why current solutions are not enough or don’t work
- To request an unblock of your IP address, you can submit a request to an administrator on the relevant wiki. However, it is important to note that requests to unblock IP addresses are generally not granted or timely, even if you are innocent (i.e. the block is meted out in error). This is because it is difficult to distinguish between innocent users and abusive users who are using the same IP address, and this has affected a lot of Global South Wikimedians, especially African volunteers.
- Unless your event location uses ethernet connections you will not be able to determine your allotted IP or IP range for an event to happen in the future due to the IPs changing frequently. Read the background above for more information.
- In practice, this works to a certain extent as most participants show up to events through word of mouth and don’t necessarily sign up ahead of time. So they don’t receive specific instructions on action before events. Which can lead to uncreated accounts before the event.
- In our experience having an IP block exemption is sometimes not enough for certain events because right after participants leave they get blocked, which means they can continue to practice what they learned and frustration thereafter.
- Sometimes blocks can affect even user rights such as the event coordinator.
Proposed Solutions
- Create a program to train African Administrators on English, French & Arabic Wikipedia - The frustration with IP blocks is that the process to unturn a block is not timely and the administrators sometimes lack knowledge about the persons being blocked and the context. Sometimes a block happens just because an administrator is unsure about the user and just needs a vouch to lift a block. Having at least 1-2 African Administrators can solve this problem.
- Improved or better Steward tools - Per our research, one of the reasons is that the respective functionaries (in particular Stewards) lack the needed tools to do simple things like unblocking an IP in a range. We are aware several requests have been made to the WMF since 2020 and yet no response or action has been taken. We need steward tools to be prioritized and functionaries to be well-supported to do diligent work around this.
- IP Block Exempt For Known Events - We need an events page, calendar, or any page that curates and provides oversight on all upcoming events in the movement. This will help functionaries identify and see all upcoming events so that when a request is made for an unblock, it is not an issue of making a case/justifying the need for the request. This will create trust for admins on such events and allow timely unblocks.
- IP Block Exempt for Autoconfirmed Users or Users of 6 Month Good Standing - New and active users of edits backdating more than 6 months and in good standing should be exempted from IP block unless they have had a case of vandalism or showed traits of that through their edits. The same should go for extended users or auto-confirmed users.
- Create Temporary User Rights For Trusted and Responsible African Contributors - These should be experienced contributors of good standing with the community. They can fill in some of the social gaps highlighted in the proposed solution for Administrators from Africa. This can be a transitional solution while we investigate how to create new Admins from Africa. They can check and revert wrong or erroneous blocks.
Systematic and Non-financial Support
Africa faces unique challenges compared to other regions. However, we have seen that the strategies deployed in other regions for the past two decades continue to be used today. Here are some key issues that require more strategic and non-financial support:
Internet, Devices, and Infrastructural Support
According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2021, only 33 percent of Africa's population uses the internet. This means that approximately 871 million people are unable to benefit from digital advantages. Moreover, the monthly cost of a fixed broadband connection in Africa is 36.6 percent of the gross national income, compared to 14.5 percent globally. The accessibility and affordability of the Internet in Africa undermines the sustainability of our communities.
The high cost of data, limited internet access, and lack of internet-enabled devices pose a serious threat to the future of editing in Africa. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) has taken some steps to address these challenges, such as providing data scholarships, donating laptops, and funding community edit-a-thons. While these efforts partially tackle the issues, they offer only temporary solutions and not long-term resolutions.
Proposed Solutions
- We urge the WMF to review or explore the implementation of a program like Wikipedia Zero, which provides internet access to users on the continent.
- Additionally, we recommend establishing partnerships with institutions that have internet access and spaces where communities can gather. This will enable community members to conveniently carry out their daily Wikimedia editing tasks. Maker spaces, technology hubs, libraries, and community centers have proven to be excellent partners for such collaborations. Examples of potential partners include the Goethe Institutes, Impact Hubs, and Mozilla maker spaces across Africa.
- Furthermore, we encourage the WMF to collaborate with institutions willing to donate their used laptops for recycling purposes. This initiative would greatly impact our communities and contribute to computer recycling in Africa. IBM, Google, Ericsson, MTN, Corporate Africa, and similar organizations in the region could be potential partners in this endeavor.
Strategic Positioning and Resource Mobilization
Wikipedia continues to be a resource used in Africa, but many people lack a complete understanding of how it works. People have accepted information about the platform without conducting proper research, which negatively impacts our communities in the region. This has resulted in decreased growth in various areas, such as the number of editors, participation of activists and civil society organizations, and resource mobilization.
As African Wikimedia communities aim to decrease their dependence on grants from WMF, it's important to effectively share our story in a way that resonates with African civil society and corporate entities. To gather resources within Africa for our campaigns and operations, we need to establish a relatable brand that highlights the value of open knowledge in Africa and the role that Wikimedia projects play in promoting it. This endeavor should focus on attracting individuals, corporate organizations, and groups who grasp the importance of knowledge as a public good, encouraging them to actively support African Wikimedians. Accomplishing this will help reposition Wikipedia as a storytelling tool, aligning with global causes and enhancing resource mobilization efforts from Africa.
FAQ
The WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom) will have the mandate as the implementation body and facilitator of the agenda together with the Wikimedia Foundation and global collaborators that include local affiliates. All current and future collaborators should refer to this document as the singular set of milestones set to be achieved for the next 5 years.
The document linked here captures the detailed collaborative process and provides a way to follow or reference each step of the process.
At Indaba 2022, following the request from the movement in Africa, WISCom pledged to expand its scope of support to address additional needs in the African Community.
Africa, though diverse in culture, needs, and challenges, has a lot of common/connected issues. Addressing the individual challenges of 54 countries can be herculean and redundant as some of the issues are shared across other countries. This document attempts to capture only common issues faced by the majority and does not cover/capture the entirety of the issues on the continent.
This document seeks to provide that singular consultative plan that provides the Foundation and key allies with the needed information and data to work with/support the continent. We hope that this will make clear the prioritized goals of the communities on the continent.
Done Q1 Afrika Braraza Meetup; setting the stage for the Africa Agenda discussions - Mar 30, 2023
Done Q2 Afrika Braraza Meetup; Identifying and tabling topics for discussion - Jun 23, 2023
Done Afrika Baraza Meetup (Wikimania Edition); discussing the key challenge areas on the continent - Aug 18, 2023
Done Transcribe information/data from Wikimania - Sep 4, 2023
Done Reorganize data into buckets and topical areas - Sep 5, 2023
Done Review and copy edit document - Sep 11, 2023 to Sep 15, 2023
Done Community engagement - Oct 3, 2023 to Oct 9, 2023
Done Discuss newly suggested (additional) topical areas at the next Baraza - Oct 6, 2023
Done Improve document based on information collected - Oct 9, 2023 to Oct 15, 2023
Done Consultation and engagement with the community on the current draft - Oct 16, 2023 to Oct 31, 2023
Done Organise sessions at Wiki Indaba for final inputs - Nov 3, 2023 to Nov 5, 2023
Done Adding update from WikiIndaba and engagement period after - Nov 6, 2023 to Jan 15, 2024
Done Translation of documents in French and Arabic - Jan 15, 2024 to Jan 18, 2024
Done Publication of draft on Meta - Jan 15, 2024 to Jan 18, 2024
Done Final Engagement Exercise - Jan 18, 2024 to Jan 31, 2024
In progress… Update the document with information from final engagement round - Feb 01, 2024 to Feb 16, 2024
Pending Publication of final document on Meta - Feb 19, 2024
Pending Socialization and engagement with movement stakeholders - Feb 20, 2024 to Mar 31, 2024
Pending Execution Committee Setup and Planning April 01 2024 to May 31 2024
Pending Execution Commencement June 2024