Beyond the Numbers: Investing in People at Africa Wiki Women

We spend so much time measuring growth through numbers, but some of the most important growth in communities happens when we invest in people and cannot be measured by analytics dashboards.

As someone working in communications, awareness, and community engagement, I spend a lot of time looking at numbers. Reach, engagement, followers, registrations, and participation often tell us whether our messages are getting to the people we hope to reach.

Over the past six months at Africa Wiki Women, there has been a lot to communicate. From creating awareness for campaigns such as EditHer Africa and NominateHer Campaign to supporting the visibility of the OnWiki Skills Mentorship Program, the Leadership and Mentorship Fellowship program, the Newbie Community, trainings, podcast episodes, physical events, the launch of our website, and many other activities, there was always something happening.

From the outside, these achievements can easily be measured through numbers. How many people were reached? How many people registered? How many followers were gained?

Yet, I have found myself thinking less about the numbers and more about the people behind them.

As part of the Africa Wiki Women Leadership and Mentorship Program, three fellows joined my department. They supported different aspects of our work, from social media management and flyer design to community engagement, video recording, and gathering publicity materials from other departments.

My responsibility was to mentor them, but somewhere along the way, I started asking myself a different question:

How do people truly learn leadership if they are never given the opportunity to lead?

So I tried something different.

Instead of simply assigning tasks and reviewing their work, I gave each fellow the opportunity to coordinate communications for one week. For that week, they became the Head of Department. I remained available for support, but I deliberately stepped into the background.

Seeing them handle the process with confidence was one of the most meaningful parts of this experience. They did not only complete tasks, they also coordinated work, followed up on activities, and ensured that communication continued smoothly without constant instruction.

Watching that transformation became one of the most rewarding parts of my work this year.

It also taught me patience. There have been times in the past when I would get frustrated after explaining something multiple times. Yet, mentoring these fellows showed me that sometimes people need time, practice and the freedom to get things wrong before they get them right.

The same lesson appeared in our visibility efforts.

Anyone who manages community communication knows the feeling of putting effort into content and hoping people will engage with it. There were times when I looked at our social media pages and wished engagement was higher. Some content reached many people but received very little interaction. It was easy to feel discouraged.

Yet, over time, I learned that visibility also requires patience.

Looking back now, I realize that the most important thing I learned in the past six months is that whether it is building a community, increasing visibility, mentoring future leaders, or helping people develop new skills, growth takes time and requires patience.

And perhaps that is what makes it worthwhile.

I hope this reflection encourages more community leaders to look beyond the numbers and invest in people. If you would like to learn more about Africa Wiki Women and the work that inspired these reflections, you can visit our Meta-Wiki page.