UNESCO and Wikimedia Movement Deepen Their Partnership at Wikimania 2026

Wikimania 2026 in Paris marked an important step forward in the growing relationship between the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Wikimedia movement. Building on grassroots partnerships developed with UNESCO field offices, Wikimedia Foundation staff and Wikimédia France helped connect regional collaboration with colleagues at UNESCO headquarters, creating new opportunities for stronger institutional engagement.

Together with Alejandra Reyes (Wikimedia France), Michael David Miller (Université McGill et Wikimedia Canada) the Wikimania 2026 chair and co-chair of the Partners and Sponsors Committee, and Sakti Pramudya (Wikimedia Foundation), they formed a team that supported the coordination of these engagements, helping demonstrate how trust and partnerships developed at the local and regional levels can contribute to broader collaboration globally.

Organized by Wikimédia France, WikiFranca, and the Wikimedia Foundation, under the theme Freedom, Equity, Reliability, Wikimania brought together thousands of Wikimedians, researchers, educators, policymakers, and digital knowledge practitioners. UNESCO contributed to several parts of the program, addressing open knowledge, information integrity, climate change, artificial intelligence, and multilingualism.

Leadership engagement and future collaboration

UNESCO Assistant Director-General Mariya Gabriel also delivered a keynote address highlighting the importance of free, reliable, inclusive, and multilingual knowledge in the age of artificial intelligence.

“Knowledge belongs to all humanity and is a global public good. Together, UNESCO and Wikimedia can keep documentary heritage and knowledge open, trusted, multilingual and accessible to everyone in the age of artificial intelligence.” – Mariya Gabriel, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information

Following her participation, she joined a bilateral discussion with Wikimedia movement leaders, including Bernadette Meehan, Jimmy Wales, and Wikimédia France President Rémy Gerbet. The conversation focused on strengthening the relationship between UNESCO and the Wikimedia movement and identifying opportunities for future collaboration.

These engagements showed that the growing UNESCO–Wikimedia partnership extends beyond individual events or high-level conversations. It is being built through sustained relationships—from local collaborations with UNESCO field offices to strategic dialogue with UNESCO headquarters—and through shared work on information integrity, multilingualism, climate knowledge, and responsible technology.

Wikimania 2026 demonstrated the value of bringing together UNESCO’s policy expertise and global reach with the Wikimedia movement’s community-led experience, open platforms, and multilingual networks. The next step is to turn this momentum into practical, long-term collaboration that supports communities, strengthens trustworthy public-interest knowledge, and ensures that diverse languages and perspectives remain visible in the digital age.

Connecting climate policy with community-led action

The Wikimania Pre-Conference on Information Integrity on Climate Change brought together Wikimedia communities, international organizations, researchers, and policymakers to connect global policy frameworks with practical, community-led action.

Participants explored how Wikimedia and other digital public goods can help close climate information gaps, expand access to reliable and multilingual knowledge, and develop collaboration models that can be scaled across countries and communities.

Guilherme Canela of UNESCO played a prominent role in the opening plenary. Alongside Charlotte Scaddan of the United Nations, he presented the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change and helped frame the strategic dialogue between multilateral institutions and the Wikimedia movement. The discussion highlighted the value of combining international policy frameworks with practical experience, editorial principles, and community networks of Wikimedia contributors.

Protecting linguistic diversity in the digital age

UNESCO also participated in a multilingualism session examining how digital public goods such as Wikipedia can support marginalized and Indigenous languages.

The discussion addressed persistent barriers, including limited internet connectivity, inaccessible technology, linguistic bias, volunteer fatigue, and the risks associated with the extraction and reuse of language data for artificial intelligence. Drawing on examples such as the Yucatec Maya Wikipedia, speakers emphasized the importance of mobile-friendly contribution tools, human oversight of machine translation, sustained public investment, and meaningful community participation.

A central message was that linguistic technologies, policies, and funding should be developed with language communities, rather than simply for them. This is essential to ensure that digital knowledge remains inclusive, sustainable, and culturally respectful.

As David Castillo of UNESCO emphasized:

“Openness should not mean unconditional reuse; communities must retain authority over their own data.”

His contribution reinforced the importance of moving beyond a one-size-fits-all understanding of openness and recognizing the right of Indigenous and language communities to determine who may access their data, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

Following the conference, UNESCO published an article reflecting on this growing collaboration as Wikipedia celebrates its 25th anniversary:

Read UNESCO’s article: Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary: Advancing open knowledge and information integrity

Wikimania 2026 was not an endpoint but a foundation for the next chapter of collaboration. By continuing to connect community experience with institutional support, UNESCO and the Wikimedia movement can help build a more trustworthy, inclusive, multilingual, and resilient knowledge ecosystem for everyone.