Visibility Project/Labour Migration in Africa/Report

General overview

Scope

The Visibility Project:Labour Migration in Africa is a gender-focused initiative in collaboration with the African Women in Media (AWIM), with support from African Union (AU), International Labour Organization, UN Migration and Sverige to bridge gender gap and promote the improvement of contents about labour migration in Africa on Wikipedia. The projected was coordinated by the Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc. and co-coodinated in English, French and Arabic language by the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda, Wikimedians of Cameroon User Group, and WikiDZ respectively.

This project support the SDG 8 which aims to "promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all (SDG target 8.8: Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment); and, SDG 10 on reducing inequality within and among countries (SDG target 10.7. Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies)".

Series of online training were organized for females from the English, Fench and Arabic-speaking countries on the basis of Wikipedia editing. More than 100 Journalists from these countries were trained on how to contribute to Wikipedia. The project started on the 30th October 2020 and ended on 31st of November 2020. They were trained by experienced Wikipedians in English, French & Arabic for 5 days followed by mentorship sessions for 7 days. At the end of the project, participants acquired the relevant skills in editing Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons, and about 20 Wikipedia articles relating to labour migration were created by the participants.

Organizing team and facilitators

SN	Name(s)	Designation	Role(s)
1.	Olaniyan Olushola	Chair, Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc.	Project manager & volunteers coordinator
2.	Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola	Chief Executive Officer, African Women in Media	Co-project manager (admiistrative)
3.	M.s Bamidele Ogunleye	Chief Operation Officer, African Women in Media	Project strategist (administrative)
4.	Isaac Olatunde	Secretary, Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation	Project strategist (technical)
6.	Ms. Olayinka Maja	Interim community liaison, Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc.	Program officer
7.	Ayokanmi Oyeyemi	Head of photography, Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation	Training facilitator & mentor (English)
8.	Sam Oye	Outreach coordinator, Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc.	Training facilitator (English)
9.	Mohammed Bachouda	Member, WikiDZ	Training facilitator & mentor (Arabic)
10.	Alice Kibombo	Member, Wikimedia Usergroup Uganda	Training facilitator & mentor
11.	Uzoma Ozurumba	Co-founder of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group	Training facilitator (English)
12.	Georges Fodouop	President, Wikimedians of Cameroon User Group	Training facilitator (French)

Project goal and measures of success

Project goal

Our specific goals for the project are to:

Improve contents about Labour migration in Africa
Improve the feasibility of African women
Bridge the gender gap on the internet and Wikipedia
Enhance female Journalists understanding of copyrights and free licenses
Promote understanding of reporting from a neutral point of view
Capacity building
Recruitment of female professional journalists for Wikipedia

The secondary goals of the project are:

Build long-term networking, relationship and partnering opportunities with aligned organizations in the African
To bridge the gap between encyclopedists and journalists

We believed we achieved our project goals based on our reflections during and after the project.

General overview of activities

Area	Task (summarized)	end outcome
Project management	Project design	Complied
	action plan design, timeline design, management and milestones,
	Strategic and Wikimedia movement alignment evaluation
	Budget and actual cost overview
	Feasibility assessment & contigency plans
Volunteers management	Volunteers recruitment	Complied
	Communication
	Engagement
	Retention
	Tracking
Training mangement	Moderation strategy"	Complied
	Training material developent
	Training patform set up (Zoom pro)
	logistics and resources
	Participants confirmation and email reminder
	Communicating with participants
	Contents uploading
	Training delivery
	Tracking and assessing learner performance
Mentorship	Outreach dashboard set up	Complied
	Lesson preparation
	Grouping of participants
	Assignment of lessons
	Timely response to questions
	Monitoring and evaluation of mentees performance
	Participants support during contents creation
Communication Management	Creation and maintenance of meta page	Complied
	Sending information and updates via mail to participants
	Creation and administration of communication platforms
	Respond to individual needs and requirements of participants and other stakeholders

Training sessions

Participants were trained by experienced Wikipedia editors from Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon & Algeria. At least five (5) training were conducted from 10th of November 2020 - 15th of November 2020 and the following important topics and concept were covered;

Webinar Sessions by community

Webinar Sessions for the English Community

S/n	Agenda	Date	Time (WAT)	Facilitator	Remarks
1	Work-Flow of Creating Wikipedia page	16 November 2020	2pm-4pm	Ayokanmi Oyeyemi	successful
2	Five Pillars of Wikipedia and The Cheatsheet of Wikipedia Editing	17 November 2020	2pm-4pm	Sam Oyeyele	successful
3	Application of Neutral Point of View in a Wikipedia article (NPOV)	18 November 2020	2pm-4pm	Olaniyan Olushola	successful
4	Basic Wikipedia Editing and How to Cite a Wikipedia Article	19 November 2020	2pm-4pm	Uzoma Ozurumba	successful
5	Wikimedia Commons: Licenses and the Use of Freely Licensed Images on Wikipedia	20 November 2020	2pm-4pm	Isaac Olatunde	successful

Webinar Sessions for the Arabic Community

S/n	Agenda	Date	Time (UTC)	Facilitator	Tuto Video links1	Tuto Video links2	Remarks
1	History and how Wikipedia works / How to create an account on Wikipedia	16 November 2020	17h to 19h	B. Mekkia / bachounda M	https://w.wiki/maP	https://w.wiki/maR	successful
2	Five Pillars of Wikipedia / Interface Article	17 November 2020	17h to 19h	B. Mekkia / bachounda M	https://w.wiki/maN	https://w.wiki/maV	successful
3	Editing tools in Wikipedia / Basic Wikipedia Editing	18 November 2020	17h to 19h	B. Mekkia / bachounda M	https://w.wiki/maW		successful
4	How to Cite a Wikipedia Article /What is the meaning of the source?	19 November 2020	17h to 19h	B. Mekkia / bachounda M	https://youtu.be/34MpLLGzHiY	https://youtu.be/nsC1PrV1KlM	successful
5	Wikimedia Commons: Licenses and the Use of Freely Licensed Images on Wikipedia	20 November 2020	17h to 19h	B. Mekkia / bachounda M	https://youtu.be/tI9b0-lXwFI		successful

Webinar Sessions for the French Community

S/n	Agenda	Date	Time (UTC)	Facilitator	Remarks
1	Présentation générale; Présentation de Wikipedia (les principes fondateurs) et ses projets frères; Création de comptes et la page utilisateur	16 Novembre 2020	15h-17h	Georges Fodouop	successful
2	Les critères de notabilité; Session pratique : Modifier un article, ajouter des sources	17 Novembre 2020	15h-17h	Georges Fodouop	successful
3	Création des catégories, sous catégories; Création d’infoBox; Découverte de Wikimedia Commons; Lier les catégories d’images aux articles Wikipedia	18 Novembre 2020	15h-17h	Georges Fodouop - Minette Lontsie	successful
4	Introduction à WikiData et la création d’entrées WikiData (Article et image)	19 Novembre 2020	15h-17h	Georges Fodouop	successful
5	Création des articles	20 Novembre 2020	15h-17h	Minette Lontsie	successful

Mentoring sessions

This aspect of the project was a very flexible session dedicated to following up with participants after the training, assignment of lessons to participants, tracking of learning, review of contents draft, timely response to questions, and feedback. The mentors were experienced editors of Wikipedia and all the activities took place on the Wikimedia outreach dashboard and WhatsApp was our major channel of communication. There were no mentor-mentees physical contacts in line with the WMF recommendations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The participants were mentored by at least there experienced mentors. These mentors meet regularly with the mentees and maintain frequent communication with them. The mentorship session lasted for one week and at least 20 articles were created. At the end of the project, Prizes were awarded to the best participants in different categories.

Mentoring Class

S/n	Class	Mentors	Dashboard	Remarks
Mentors
1	Arabic	Bachounda Gêt_Fenyan	Virtual Class	successful
2	English	Kaizenify AKibombo	Virtual Class	successful
3	French	Geugeor serieminou	Virtual Class	successful

Learning

What worked well

1. Diversity of participants and trainers

Participants were selected from the 3 language speaking countries, including Nigeria, Algeria and Cameroon. This diversity of participants makes the training and mentoring session very interesting and also provide a platform for networking. 2. Diversity of trainers

The trainers were selected from 4 countries, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon and Algeria. The trainers were experienced members of the Wikimedia community with a track record of leading similar training in their respective communities. This diversity of trainers really worked well during the mentorship session as well.

3. Patnership with journalists

There is a huge gap between encyclopedists and journalists. Journalists and their works are very important to Wikipedia as we rely on contents published by them to write the encyclopedia. This partnership really worked well as it created a platform for us to learn more about their works, and what we share in common as content writers. The pre- and post-meeting really worked well.

4. WhatsApp group for coordination

Identifying the easiest and cost-efficient means of coordination was cha llenging but the use of WhatsApp really worked well. It is easily accessible, cheap, and popular among the participants and trainers. It was easy for mentors to timely respond to questions from the participants and provide feedback on performance.

5.

First is Communication: Between the organizing team and the facilitators
Secondly Follow up: There was regular follow up throughout the project and things were even changed in an attempt to improve the situation
Thirdly Interest of some participants: Though they were not many, I really appreciate the fact that there were a few participants who were really interested and passionate about the project and Wikimedia in general and were willing to learn.

Dedication of facilitator George: who organized at least 4 additional online sessions to come back and review some things that were presented during the main sessions and that participants complained to have not well understood.