Igbo Wikimedians Community’s Participation in the Movement Charter Consultation

The Movement Charter will be a document defining roles and responsibilities for all the members and entities of the Wikimedia movement, including laying out a new Global Council for movement governance. This is a very important document that will impact all communities in the Wikimedia movement and hence I see the need for diverse perspectives to be considered and heard in putting together this document. I also see it important that language should not be a barrier for members who want to provide their feedback. And hence, when I saw the Movement Charter ambassador program, I knew I had to take on this role.

The Movement Charter Ambassadors Program is an initiative to create room for wider community outreach around the Movement Charter. Several Wikimedians from various regions indicated interest to volunteer as Movement Charter Ambassadors. Movement Charter Ambassadors translate movement charter content into their language and organize conversations in their communities to create awareness about the Movement Charter and to collect feedback from members in their language. I, Goodness Ignatius, took up the role of MC ambassador for the Igbo Wikimedians community.

Inspiration

In taking up the MC Ambassador role, I meant to engage more community members and increase their participation in the ongoing  Movement Charter consultations. More community engagement creates a wider reach for sensitization, involvement, opinions, and feedback.  There is also a need to create more language visibility on Wikimedia projects. In this regard, participants from the community were engaged in training and translation activities to contribute and gain more experience.  This was also an expository period for members of the Igbo community as most of the participants translated and/or added Igbo content for the first time on Meta-Wiki. This exposition created more awareness about Wikimedia Foundation, the Movement Charter draft chapters, and how to contribute to Meta-Wiki.

The Igbo Community Ambassadors

All ambassadors are members of the Igbo Wikimedian User Group. These ambassadors are:

Chimezie Atama, PhD is a senior lecturer and a researcher at the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Gender and Development Studies Research Group at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She is also the Founding Director, Equity Watch Initiative [E-WIN], a non-governmental organization that is committed to promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls. She is the founder and coordinator of the IG Wiki Hub Enugu

Chinwendu Anyanwu is an alumna of University of Benin (Nigeria). She is well spiced in phonetics transcription, translation and language morphological data analysis. She is competent in spoken and written Igbo language. She belong to groups such as, Wikimedians for Sustainable Development, Wikitongues, and others.

Goodness Ignatius is a librarian who is deeply passionate about community involvement and contributing to Wikimedia projects. She is the founder and coordinator of the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub, a group dedicated to supporting librarians in their efforts to contribute to Wikimedia projects. She also assists in coordinating programs for the Igbo Wikimedians User Group. She is a member of the Leadership Development Working Group, LD4-Wikidata Affinity Group, among others.

Glory Onwuka earned her first degree in the field of History and International Studies, showcasing her passion for understanding the complexities of the world around her. Recognizing the importance of education in shaping the future, Glory went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Childhood Education. This demonstrates her commitment to making a positive impact on the lives of children and future generations. In addition , she is also a Wikipedia editor, member of the Owerri Hub and the Igbo Wikimedians User Group, where she contributes her skills and knowledge to support the development of these groups.

Kingsley Abasili works as both a lecturer and a public administrator. He is an academic researcher that possesses a strong passion for adding to existing knowledge and is well-skilled in setting target goals. His success in achieving these goals is a result of his ability to work effectively in a team environment. He is a professional who takes a proactive approach to his work, always striving to contribute meaningful insights and ideas. He is the organizer for Ig Wiki Librarians Hub.

Lucy Iwuala is a freelance editor cum photographer and a graphic designer. She loves participating in movements that contributes in the digitalization of various indigenous languages. As an advocate of Igbo culture, she uses her skills in various media to contribute to the development and upliftment of Igbo language for the posterity of our Igbo cultural heritage. She is the founder and coordinator of the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan

Obinna J. Eze is a criminologist and an academic researcher. He contributes to the field of criminology, particularly in the areas of crime statistics, victimology, crime reporting patterns, and the criminal justice system. In addition to these areas, he also delved into the complex power dynamics that exist within the realm of gender and criminality. He holds a certification as a project manager. He is also an active member of the IG Wiki Hub Enugu.

Activities

Some of the activities carried out to achieve possible outcomes include:

• Prep meetings and training
• Publicity via community communication channels
• Sending out invitations and reminders
• Pre and post-evaluation survey
• Creating video resources and notes (other videos and notes are linked on the feedback page)
• Presentations: Movement Charter conversation and feedback and Translate-a-thon of Movement Charter content
• Movement Charter conversation & feedback
• Online & in-person training
• Translate-a-thon in-person events: Enugu in Enugu State and Awka in Anambra State.
• Wikimedia commons uploads
•  Disseminating outcomes

To ensure Equity in Decision making and equitable opportunities for participation in decision-making, the Igbo community members were engaged in conversations and their feedback on the Movement Charter content chapters was collected.  I, together with team members from the Igbo community held conversions and training for Igbo community members with support from the Wikimedia Foundation Movement Strategy grant. The event which was themed Igbo Wikimedians Community Movement Charter Sensitization, Conversation, and Translation was a period of consultation basically to create more awareness about the Wikimedia Movement Charter, get feedback concerning the draft content of the Movement Charter, and the three chapters of the Movement Charter. Namely:

• Preamble
• Values and Principles
• Roles and Responsibilities

With support from the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, the Movement Strategy team, the Igbo Wikimedians User Group,  Igbo community Movement Charter Ambassadors, and volunteers, four events were conducted within the consultation timeline. There was an online conversation and feedback meeting, online training on how to translate Movement Charter content on Meta-Wiki to the Igbo language, and two in-person events in different locations within the South-Eastern region of Nigeria (Igbo community). These in-person events were held at the National Energy Research Center, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, and Ekwueme Centre for Multi-Disciplinary Research, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State.

Outcome and Impact

The online conversation and training recorded a total of 67 attendees while the in-person events recorded a total of 48 participants. For more information on the outcome, see the online Meta-Wiki content page, Movement Charter Language Visibility Enugu, and Movement Charter Language Visibility, Awka.

At the end of the online and in-person events, more community members were reached. Members of the Igbo community currently have a better understanding of what the Movement Charter stands for and also several feedback concerning the draft content of the Movement Charter were collected. The level of awareness was ascertained via a Pre and Post evaluation survey. The summary of findings from the pre and post-evaluation survey were shown in charts. The Movement Charter content and chapter feedback from the Igbo community were recorded on the 2022 Movement Charter consultations feedback page.

At the end of the translation event, participants translated more than 50 pages of the Movement Charter and related content on Meta-Wiki. Thereby, increasing user experience, contributions, and language coverage.

A summary of the outcome is shown using the implementation plan – Logic Model. See the Image below and on Wikimedia Commons

Igbo Community Movement charter Consultation implementation plan – Logic Model

Challenges and way forward

During the community conversation period, some ambassadors experienced poor network connectivity. As a result, breakout rooms for feedback were not coordinated properly. To address this challenge, all breakout rooms were merged and feedback was collected from all participants in the main room.  In the future, more technical hands will be engaged to address such issues.

The timeline for the Igbo community consultations was from 10th December 2022 – 20th January 2023. Due to the holidays, some participants and ambassadors were not available to proceed with the in-person event. To go ahead with the event as planned, other ambassadors/volunteers worked together to complete the in-person events.

During the translate-a-thon events, it was observed that some Movement Charter content was not marked for translation. It was indicated on the translation list and translation admins will be contacted in this regard.

Through the Movement Charter Ambassador program, we were able to increase awareness about the Movement Charter and collect feedback about the Charter’s draft content from my language community. If you are interested in becoming an ambassador for your language community in the next Movement Charter Consultation, you can apply when the call reopens for applications in the second quarter of 2023.

Gallery

Some images from in-person events.