Expanding Knowledge on Digital Rights: September Progress in Sudan and Somalia

September marked another month of steady growth in the AWA Digitalise Youth Fellowship, with a strong focus on equipping participants with skills to contribute meaningful content on Wikipedia and Wikidata. The trainings and activities this month built on earlier progress, while ensuring alignment with the fellowship’s mission of addressing knowledge gaps related to digital rights, e-democracy, and human rights in Sudan and Somalia.

Wikidata Training: Translation and Descriptions

We began the month with a session on translating labels, descriptions, and aliases on Wikidata. This training refreshed participants’ understanding of how to create Wikidata items, set up Babel on their user pages, and write clear, accurate descriptions. By strengthening these basic skills, participants are now better equipped to make high-quality contributions to the global knowledge graph.

Office Hour: Addressing Challenges

Following the training, I hosted an office hour session to address participants’ challenges. This provided a supportive space to discuss technical issues, editing hurdles, and other barriers they face. By collectively resolving these difficulties, participants were able to move forward with greater confidence.

Wikipedia Training: Creating Biographies

Later in the month, attention shifted to Wikipedia biographies. The training guided participants on how to identify and create notable biographies linked to the fellowship’s thematic areas:

• The African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection (Malabo Convention)
  
• E-democracy
  
• Digital mobilisation in social movements
  
• SDG16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions
  
• Freedom of expression and human rights
  

This targeted approach ensured that new biographies were relevant and contributed to closing important knowledge gaps about leaders and institutions shaping digital rights in Sudan and Somalia.

Achievements

September was particularly productive in terms of outcomes. More than 17 new Wikidata items were created for figures connected to justice and digital information sectors in Sudan and Somalia.

The top achievement was the creation of the Wikipedia biography and Wikidata entry for Abdullah Mohammed Daraf Ali, the current Minister of Justice in Sudan. This contribution, alongside the development of related items and biographies, directly advances SDG16 by documenting leaders who play key roles in strengthening peace, justice, and strong institutions.