Pursuing An Equitable Movement

01. Notable Ghanaian Women on Wikipedia Campaign

The Notable Ghanaian Women on Wikipedia Campaign sought to address the underrepresentation of Ghanaian women on Wikipedia. As mentioned earlier in the report, Highlife had been noted as an intangible cultural Heritage by UNESCO and the Government of Ghana had declared the celebration of the genre in 2026. 

Wikimedia Ghana User Group therefore decided to dedicate its Women’s month activities to covering female Highlife performers ahead of the coverage of Highlife in general from August 2026.

Wikimedia Ghana User Group ran the #FindHerHighlife Contest to identify and curate a list of biographies of notable Ghanaian women in Highlife who did not yet have articles on Wikipedia, for creation later in August 2026. We also held dedicated women-only editing sessions to begin addressing these content gaps. Through seven editathons, 20 women editors collectively improved 12 existing articles and created two new biographies focused on women in Highlife music.

Beyond the content produced, the campaign created a dedicated environment for women to participate in Wikimedia activities and contributed to identifying women whose stories could be better represented in the free knowledge ecosystem. Therefore, we addressed both sides of the equity challenge: improving the representation of women in Wikimedia content while creating opportunities for women to participate as contributors.

Wikimedia Ghana User Group is currently engaging with John Cummings (a Partnerships and Open Knowledge Advocate with extensive experience connecting the work of international organisations and UN agencies with Wikimedia) to explore a collaboration with UNESCO around Ghana’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.

02. Supporting Ghanaian Language Wikipedias

International Mother Language Month 

The International Mother Language Month initiative was redesigned during implementation to support the localization of Wikimedia software interfaces into a Ghanaian language, with Ghanaian Pidgin selected as the focus language. The redesign specifically targeted the Suggestion Mode feature within VisualEditor’s Edit Check tool. The project sought to make Wikipedia’s editing interface more accessible to Ghanaian Pidgin speakers while building local capacity in Wikimedia software localization. 

The project delivered a complete and measurable localization outcome. Participants collaboratively translated all 110 interface messages for the Suggestion Mode feature into Ghanaian Pidgin, achieving 100% completion of the targeted interface translation in a single workshop. This is significant because Suggestion Mode is widely used by editors and workshop facilitators. By making it available in Ghanaian Pidgin, It improves the editing experience for contributors who use the language, while also making an important editing feature more accessible within the community.

Beyond the content output, all participants gained hands-on practical experience with Translatewiki.net and the localization workflow, building a local capacity base that positions the Ghanaian Pidgin community to independently contribute to future software translation efforts.

Ga Wikipedia Translatathon (Incubator)

The Monthly Ga Wikipedia Translatathon sought to address the limited representation of indigenous Ghanaian languages on Wikipedia by enabling native Ga speakers to create and expand knowledge in their own language while strengthening the Ga Wikipedia Incubator towards its eventual graduation as a standalone Wikipedia.

The original monthly translatathon model was adapted into an intensive Ga Wikipedia Incubator Workshop, allowing the project to prioritise deeper onboarding and hands-on support for new Ga-speaking contributors. The workshop engaged 5 participants, with new editors accounting for 80% of participants. Together, participants translated and created 41 articles on the Ga Wikipedia Incubator, more than doubling the single-session target of 20 articles and demonstrating how focused, well-supported sessions can generate significant content contributions even with a small group of editors.

Encouragingly, some participants continued working independently on the article list after the workshop, providing an early indication of continued engagement beyond the session. This suggests that the combination of practical onboarding, hands-on support, and a focused content task may help new contributors develop the confidence to continue contributing beyond initial training.

Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Community Meetup 2025

The Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Community Meetup 2025 was a co-funded collaborative initiative undertaken with the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group to strengthen indigenous language Wikimedia communities across Ghana. The initiative sought to foster greater collaboration among language communities, build contributor capacity, and promote the sustainable growth of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in indigenous Ghanaian languages.

The meetup brought together 50 participants from indigenous language Wikimedia communities across Ghana, making it a significant gathering of Ghana’s Language Wikimedia ecosystem. Women accounted for 34% of total attendance, representing meaningful female participation within the community.

The gathering enabled contributors to exchange experiences, strengthen their editing and technical skills, and explore collaborative approaches to developing Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in indigenous Ghanaian languages. Bringing contributors from different language communities together created opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration that would have been more difficult to achieve through individual language projects working independently.

03. Knowledge Equity Fund Connected Grant

In June 2025, the Wikimedia Ghana User Group was awarded a Knowledge Equity Fund Connected Grant from the Wikimedia Foundation’s Knowledge Equity Fund. Knowledge Equity is one of the two strategic directions of the Wikimedia Movement Strategy 2030. 

The Knowledge Equity Fund (KEF) is a US$4.5 million fund established by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2020 to support organisations outside the Wikimedia movement that are working to advance knowledge equity.

To strengthen the relationship between Knowledge Equity Fund grantees and the Wikimedia movement, the Wikimedia Foundation introduced the Knowledge Equity Fund Connected Grant model. This model connects an external organisation whose work advances knowledge equity with an established Wikimedia movement affiliate that collaborates with the organisation.

There’s more in the Knowledge Equity Fund Connected project report.