Working with Wikipedia to make expert knowledge and data discoverable, shareable and accessible to all
FAO’s first function is to “collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture”, while Wikipedia’s aspiration is to give “every single person on the planet… free access to the sum of all human knowledge”.
Given this strong alignment, FAO has taken on a lead role in sharing and disseminating knowledge through Wikipedia as part of a broader project that also involves several other United Nations agencies.
Initiated by UNESCO in 2015, the initiative aims to enrich Wikipedia articles related to the UN’s areas of expertise, share UN content and data on Wikipedia and facilitate cooperation between UN agencies, other intergovernmental organizations and the Wikimedia movement.
FAO has been collaborating with Wikipedia since 2019, supported by Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Sweden. As at June 2024 there are over 80 Wikipedia articles, viewed over 4 million times a month, incorporating FAO’s open content relating to food security, food safety, forestry, fisheries and plant genetic resources, among other areas. In addition, graphics drawn from FAO publications appear on articles viewed over 8 million times a month.
Regular dialogue through participation in Wikimania, the annual event bringing together the Wikimedia and Wikipedia community from across the world, most recently in 2023, has helped to create and sustain the collaboration, with FAO bringing on board a Wikimedian-in-Residence in 2023.
