African & Proud (AP)/Theory of Change

Introduction

The Theory of Change for Afroyanga Cultural Enlightenment Initiative popularly known as African & Proud (AP) provides a comprehensive roadmap that lays out how AP aims to achieve its vision of building a thriving Pan-African movement. This movement seeks to celebrate, preserve, and amplify the rich cultural heritage of Africa by empowering young Africans to document and share their narratives on global digital platforms, particularly Wikimedia. The Theory of Change presents a clear vision of the desired end state, the challenges AP is addressing, and the strategies it will employ to achieve its goals. It includes an overview of why AP exists, what it seeks to accomplish, and how it will achieve these goals, encompassing the full scope of the initiative beyond any specific year.

Vision Statement

To create a world where African cultural heritage is richly represented, accurately documented, and widely celebrated. African & Proud envisions empowering African communities to take ownership of their cultural narratives, ensuring that these stories are shared globally, while fostering unity, pride, and mutual understanding among Africans and across the world.

Theory of Change Statement

African & Proud (AP) aims to empower local African communities, particularly younger generations, to become custodians of their own cultural heritage by documenting, preserving, and amplifying their stories on Wikimedia platforms. Through strategic local partnerships, capacity building, youth empowerment, and initiatives like Culture Connect Africa, Afroyanga Bootcamp, and WikiClassroom Project, AP seeks to transform the digital representation of African culture. AP strives to shift cultural representation into the hands of those who live it, thereby creating a sustainable, inclusive, and authentic digital record of African culture accessible to a global audience. The ultimate goal is to build a thriving community of young cultural custodians connected across borders, whose representation of Africa is as diverse, dynamic, and multifaceted as the culture itself.

Overview of Change Pathway

The Theory of Change for AP can be understood as a progression through several interrelated phases:

Identify Needs and Challenges: Understand the gap in cultural representation of African narratives on global platforms and the specific needs of local communities to bridge this gap.
Engage and Empower: Recruit and empower youth, providing them with the skills, knowledge, and motivation needed to become effective cultural custodians.
Capacity Building and Community Growth: Develop and sustain community initiatives through training, mentorship, and strategic partnerships, ensuring a well-supported and scalable approach.
Content Creation and Expansion: Mobilize the community to create and improve digital cultural content on Wikimedia platforms, emphasizing quality, authenticity, and inclusivity.
Sustainable Community Empowerment: Establish sustainable leadership and community structures that ensure the continued involvement and growth of contributors over time.
Achieve Impact: Create an extensive, accurate, and globally accessible digital record of African culture that promotes unity, cultural pride, and mutual understanding.

Why (The Problem Statement)

Underrepresentation of African Culture: There is significant underrepresentation of African cultural narratives on global digital platforms. Many stories are either untold, misrepresented, or told from an external viewpoint, resulting in an incomplete and inaccurate portrayal of Africa.
Youth Engagement and Opportunity: While African youth are digitally savvy, their potential as contributors to global cultural narratives remains untapped. The youth, who are connected to their cultural roots, lack the support and guidance to channel their digital skills into meaningful content creation that amplifies African heritage.
Capacity Gaps: Previous experiences highlighted the challenges in supporting participants equitably across diverse regions. There were capacity issues around training, language diversity, and localized support, highlighting the need for strategic partnerships to cater to local needs.

What (Goals and Objectives)

In response to the identified challenges, African & Proud is working towards the following key objectives:

Empower Local Communities: Enable young Africans to document, preserve, and amplify their cultural heritage, ensuring they control their own cultural stories.
Expand Representation: Increase the quality and volume of culturally relevant content about African heritage on Wikimedia platforms, covering cuisine, festivals, cinema, and more.
Build Capacity for Sustainability: Train and mentor participants, enabling them to create digital content and sustain contributions over time, ultimately growing into community leaders.
Localized Partnerships: Establish partnerships with local user groups, ensuring that participants receive culturally relevant resources and training that reflect their local context and also get the best support in getting the resources they need in being an active community member.
Foster Cross-Border Collaboration: Create opportunities for collaboration between African countries to encourage shared learning, unity, and the building of a Pan-African cultural identity.
Engage Educational Institutions: Promote awareness through WikiClassroom Projects in high schools, encouraging students to use and explore Wikimedia platforms beyond Wikipedia, such as Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, Wikidata and much more.

How (Programs and Strategies)

Programs

CultureConnect: Develop CultureConnect to document African cultural elements, including cuisine, festivals, and cinema, ensuring diverse participation from multiple African countries. Establish strategic local partnerships to enable language-accessible support and collaboration, beginning with smaller-scale partnerships that are scalable and better support in providing resources needed by community members.
Afroyanga Bootcamp: Conduct Afroyanga Bootcamp to train participants in content creation, Wikimedia contributions, and leadership skills. The Bootcamp focuses on developing local leaders and creating resilient networks to ensure community-driven sustainability.
WikiClassroom Project: Raise awareness within high schools by educating teachers and students about Wikimedia platforms and addressing misconceptions about reliability. Encourage teachers and students to explore other Wikimedia platforms beyond Wikipedia and create Wikimedia fan clubs to foster continued interest and engagement.

Strategies

Localized Training and Mentorship: Collaborate with local user groups to provide culturally relevant and language-accessible training, bridging gaps experienced in previous years. Mentorship initiatives help to nurture young contributors into community leaders.
Community Retention and Leadership Pathways: Focus on retaining community members by establishing mentorship pathways and helping young contributors evolve into leaders, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Cross-Border Partnerships: Establish partnerships that enable collaboration across multiple African countries, encouraging cultural exchange, shared learning, and unity.

Expected Outcomes and Impact

Short-Term Outcomes

Participants gain digital literacy, content creation skills, and a deeper appreciation for their cultural heritage.
Increased awareness of Wikimedia platforms beyond Wikipedia, particularly in high schools through active Wikimedia fan clubs formed by the WikiClassroom Project.

Medium-Term Outcomes

Localized partnerships with initiatives and organizations to provide better support in diverse linguistic, cultural contexts and also providing the necessary resources to enable local volunteers/community members.
Enhanced representation of African cultural narratives on Wikimedia, including increased quality and quantity of content about cuisine, festivals, and cinema.
Young contributors become community leaders, contributing to the sustainability of the movement and mentoring new participants.
School students become more informed about the Wikimedia ecosystem beyond Wikipedia and contribute through fan clubs, enriching Wikimedia’s youth engagement.

Long-Term Outcomes

A comprehensive and authentic portrayal of African culture on the global Wikimedia platforms and wide, created and maintained by Africans themselves.
A thriving, sustainable network of empowered young cultural custodians across multiple African countries.
Increased sustainability for the Wikimedia movement through youth engagement, ensuring the continuity of contributions and growth as older volunteers move on. This aligns with the Wikimedia Foundation's sustainability goals, focusing on creating a new generation of contributors and ensuring sustainable content on the platform.
Fresh perspectives brought in by younger generations, which keep the movement vibrant, innovative, and future-proof.
A strong, dynamic Wikimedia community driven by youth, who not only document culture but also establish a lasting foundation that aligns with Wikimedia's overall vision for sustainability.

Monitoring and Evaluation

To track progress and ensure goals are met:

Content Metrics: Track the number of articles created or improved on Wikimedia platforms, covering various cultural aspects.
Participation Metrics: Measure youth engagement, number of training sessions, and community retention.
Partnership Metrics: Track partnerships established with local user groups and educational institutions.
Sustainability Metrics: Monitor growth in community leadership, the establishment of mentors, and the sustainability of Wikimedia fan clubs in schools.
Qualitative Feedback: Gather feedback from participants and partners on the effectiveness of training, mentorship, and overall community support.