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  "path": "/2026/06/30/from-access-to-participation-wikimedia-and-digital-human-rights-at-drif-2026/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-30T15:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://diff.wikimedia.org",
  "tags": [
    "The Digital Rights and\nInclusion Forum",
    "Dagbani Wikimedians User\nGroup",
    "Africa Wiki Women Give-to-Gain Campaign 2026 in Uganda",
    "added more than 111,000 bytes of content",
    "Wiki\nfor Minorities in Uganda"
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  "textContent": "The Digital Rights and\nInclusion Forum (DRIF) is an important platform where conversations on digital policy in the Global South are shaped, policy directions are debated, and partnerships are forged for action. At DRIF 2026 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, I had the opportunity to moderate a session titled _“Empowering Communities: The Role of Wikimedia in Advancing Digital Human Rights in Africa.”_\n\nThe session brought together Wikimedia community leaders, organisers, editors and advocates to explore how open knowledge platforms contribute to digital inclusion, access to information, freedom of expression, and community participation across Africa. Joining the panel discussion were Sadik Shahadu, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Dagbani Wikimedians User\nGroup  from Ghana; Dr Nkem Osuigwe, the Director of Human Capacity Development and Training at the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) fromNigeria; and Sandra Aceng, Executive Director of Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) from Uganda.\n\nWhile digital rights discussions often focus on internet access, surveillance, online freedoms, and emerging technologies, the session highlighted another important dimension: who gets to create, access, and share knowledge online.\n\n## Access to information goes beyond connectivity\n\nOne of the key themes that emerged from the discussion was that access to information is not solely about internet connectivity. However, communities also need access to relevant, reliable, and locally meaningful content.\n\nSadik Shahadu reflected on how Wikimedia projects are helping communities document local history, culture, and knowledge while supporting education and digital literacy. He further mentioned that by preserving knowledge that may otherwise be overlooked, Wikimedia platforms provide opportunities for communities globally to contribute their own narratives to the global knowledge ecosystem.\n\nThe discussion also highlighted the importance of ensuring that knowledge remains accessible to people regardless of their location or circumstances. Open knowledge platforms play an important role in enabling learning, research, and community development by making information freely available.\n\n## Inclusion must include language diversity\n\nA recurring point throughout the session was that digital inclusion cannot be fully achieved if African languages continue to be excluded from communities, preventing their availability to enable participation online.\n\nDr Nkem Osuigwe emphasised that inclusion must extend beyond connectivity and infrastructure to include the languages people speak and use in their daily lives, especially African languages. When communities cannot access information in their own languages, participation remains limited and knowledge gaps persist.\n\nFor Wikimedia communities across Africa, this presents an opportunity to expand local-language content and support contributors documenting knowledge in indigenous and underrepresented languages. Such efforts not only increase access to information but also strengthen cultural preservation and representation online.\n\n## Building safer spaces for participation\n\nOpen participation is one of the defining features of Wikimedia projects, but meaningful participation also requires safety and trust.\n\nSandra Aceng highlighted several mechanisms that help protect contributors and maintain healthy community environments. These include anonymous editing options, the Universal Code of Conduct, reporting mechanisms for threats and harassment, community moderation processes, and the work of Wikimedia’s Trust and Safety teams.\n\nThe discussion also explored how community spaces such as talk pages enable contributors to collaborate, discuss improvements, and resolve disagreements constructively. Together, these measures help ensure that Wikimedia projects remain open while fostering accountability, respect, and inclusion.\n\n## Turning ideas into action\n\nThe themes discussed during the session are already being translated into action through Wikimedia initiatives across Africa.\n\nOne example is the \nAfrica Wiki Women Give-to-Gain Campaign 2026 in Uganda, which focused on improving the visibility of notable African women across Wikimedia projects while encouraging new contributors to participate in the knowledge creation.\n\nThe campaign resulted in the creation of 17 new English Wikipedia articles, 11 Luganda Wikipedia article translations, 16 Runyankole Wikipedia article translations, and 37 new Wikidata items. Participants also improved and translated 68 articles, made 295 edits, and \nadded more than 111,000 bytes of content. The initiative welcomed new editors into the Wikimedia movement, helping strengthen contributor diversity and community growth.\n\nAnother initiative, Wiki\nfor Minorities in Uganda, is working to improve the representation of minority communities, institutions, cultural heritage, and notable individuals whose stories have historically had limited online visibility. Through article creation, Wikidata improvement, and community engagement, the project demonstrates how Wikimedia platforms can help address knowledge gaps while ensuring broader representation in digital spaces.\n\nTogether, these initiatives illustrate how Wikimedia communities are advancing digital inclusion not only by expanding access to information but also by empowering people to contribute knowledge themselves.\n\n## Looking ahead\n\nOne message that stood out clearly throughout the session: digital rights and open knowledge are deeply interconnected.\n\nEnsuring meaningful digital inclusion requires more than internet access alone. It requires opportunities for people to participate, contribute, and see themselves represented within the digital knowledge ecosystem.\n\nAs Wikimedia communities continue to grow across Africa, there is an opportunity to strengthen local content, support language diversity, improve digital literacy, and empower more communities to share their knowledge with the world. In doing so, Wikimedia projects can continue serving as important tools for advancing digital human rights across the continent.\n\nAs the moderator of this session, one insight particularly stood out to me. Too often, discussions about digital rights focus primarily on internet access, infrastructure, and policy frameworks. While these remain important, the conversation reminded me that meaningful inclusion also depends on how people access and contribute to knowledge. Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons enable communities to tell their own stories, while tools like Kiwix help extend access to Wikipedia content beyond those with reliable internet connectivity.\n\nListening to the panellists and participants reinforced my belief that Wikimedia projects play an important role in advancing digital human rights in Africa. Through initiatives that promote local content creation, language inclusion, digital literacy, and community participation, Wikimedia communities are helping ensure that more Africans are not only consumers of information but active contributors to the world’s knowledge.",
  "title": "From Access to Participation: Wikimedia and Digital Human Rights at\nDRIF 2026"
}