Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiFundi Content/Wikipedia:Notability

🇪🇹 Official Recognition Biography Name: Ahmed Aliyi Abdurahim Country: Ethiopia Profile Overview: Ahmed Aliyi Abdurahim is an Ethiopian volunteer innovator and civic contributor dedicated to advancing community welfare, job creation, and sustainable urban development. Through his independent initiatives, he has demonstrated a strong sense of national duty and alignment with Ethiopia’s collective growth vision. Key Contribution: Ahmed is widely recognized for developing and promoting the concept of mobile public toilets in Addis Ababa — a socially impactful project designed to enhance public sanitation, urban hygiene, and employment opportunities for local youth. His idea reflects practical problem-solving rooted in empathy, innovation, and service to society. Vision & Alignment: Driven by a spirit of volunteerism and patriotism, Ahmed’s initiatives echo Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s “Medemer” philosophy — integrating unity, innovation, and citizen participation in nation-building. His work serves as a living example of how one individual’s creativity can support national reform, improve lives, and contribute to Ethiopia’s development journey. Purpose Statement: Ahmed aims to continue contributing ideas and solutions that generate tangible community impact, foster youth empowerment, and strengthen Ethiopia’s path toward prosperity, self-reliance, and collective progress. Date: October 28, 2025 G.C. / Tikimt 18, 2018 E.C. Prepared and Submitted by: Ahmed Aliyi Abdurahim Volunteer Innovator & Community Impact Contributor

General notability guideline

If a topic has received important coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be notable.

A topic for which this guideline has been met by agreement, is usually worthy of notice, and satisfies one of the guidelines for a stand-alone article in the encyclopedia. Verifiable facts and content not supported by multiple independent sources may be appropriate for inclusion within another article.

Notability guidelines for articles about people

Within Wikipedia, notability is guideline to see if an article should be included. The topic of an article should be notable, or "worthy of notice"; that is, "significant, interesting, or unusual enough to deserve attention or to be recorded". Notable in this instance is used in the sense of being "famous", or "popular"—although not irrelevant—is secondary.

This notability guideline for biographies also applies to small groups of closely related people such as families, co-authors, and co-inventors. It does not cover groups of unrelated people. This guideline is based on consensus reached through discussions and reinforced by established practice. It helps editors decide whether an article on a person should be written, merged, deleted or further developed.

In order to meet Wikipedia's standards for verifiability and notability, the article must actually show that the guidelines have been met. Evidence with references should be included.

These guidelines are about whether a person is notable enough for an article. Other relevant policies which can affect an article include:

Basic guideline

A person can be notable if he or she has been written about in many published works. The definition of what a "published work" is covers all types of publications. These published works must be reliable and independent of each other, and independent of the subject.

Additional guidelines

People can be notable if they meet any of the following guidelines. Failure to meet these standards is not proof that a subject should not be included. Meeting one or more of the guideline does not guarantee that a subject should be included.

A person who fails to meet these additional standards may still be notable under Notability.

Any biography

  1. The person has been given a well-known and significant award or honour, or has been nominated for one several times.
  2. The person has made a widely recognised contribution that is part of the historical record in his or her specific field. Generally, a person who is "part of the historical record" will have been written about, in depth, independently in many books on that field, by historians. A politician who has received "significant press coverage" has been written about, in depth, independently in multiple news feature articles, by journalists. An actor who has been featured in magazines has been written about, in depth, independently in multiple magazine feature articles, by magazine article writers. An actor or TV personality who has "an independent biography" has been written about, in depth, in a book, by an independent biographer.

Biographies of living persons

Everyone must take extra care when changing pages with biographical material about a living person. Such content must have a high much care. The change must follow strictly all applicable laws in the country that person lives in and to the content policies of Wikipedia discussed above.

Pages about living persons must be made carefully, with care for the subject's privacy. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a tabloid paper or newspaper; it is not the writer's job to be sensationalist (Oh my! Look!), or to be the primary place for the spread of interesting claims about people's lives. The possibility of harm to living subjects is one of the important factors to be considered when writing an article. Do not include rumours unless you have written proof that they are true.

We must get the page right. Always use of high quality references. Heated, arguable, material about living persons that is unsourced (without references) or poorly sourced—even if the content is negative (bad), positive (good), or just questionable—should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion.

Academics

Many scientists, researchers, philosophers and other scholars, known as "academics" are notably influential in the world of ideas without their biographies being the subject of secondary sources.

If an academic meets any one of the following guideline, with reliable sources=, they are notable.

  1. The person's research has made significant impact in their area of study, as shown by independent reliable sources.
  2. The person has received an important academic award or honour at a national or international level. Awards such as the Nobel Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, the Fields Medal, the Bancroft Prize, the Pulitzer Prize a national university prize, etc. means the person is notable.
  3. The person is or has been an elected member of an important scholarly society or association (e.g. a National Academy of Sciences or the Royal Society) or a Fellow of a major scholarly society for which that is a highly selective honour (e.g. the IEEE)
  4. The person's academic work has made a significant impact in the area of higher education, affecting a substantial number of academic institutions.
  5. The person holds or has held a named chair appointment or "Distinguished Professor" appointment at a major institution of higher education and research.
  6. The person has held a major highest-level elected or appointed academic post at a major academic institution or major academic society.
  7. The person has made substantial impact outside academia in their academic capacity.
  8. The person is or has been an editor-in-chief of a major well-established academic journal in their subject area.
  9. The person is in a field of literature (e.g. writer or poet) or the fine arts (e.g. musician, composer, artist), and meets the standards for notability in that art.

Athletes

Sports people are may be notable if they have:

  1. participated in a major international amateur or professional competition at the highest level such as the Olympics.
  2. won a national event of competition
  3. played for a national team
  4. played for a team in a national level competition

Creative people

Scientists, academics, economists, professors, authors, editors, journalists, movie makers, photographers, artists, architects, engineers, and other creative professionals:

  1. The person is regarded as an important figure or is widely cited by peers or successors.
  2. The person is known for starting a significant new concept, theory or technique.
  3. The person has created, or played a major role in co-creating, a significant or well-known work, or collective body of work. This work has been the subject of an independent book or feature-length movie, or of multiple independent periodical articles or reviews.
  4. The person's work either (a) has become a significant monument, (b) has been a substantial part of a significant exhibition, (c) has won significant critical attention, or (d) is represented within the permanent collections of several notable galleries or museums.

Diplomats

Diplomats who have participated in a significant way in events of particular diplomatic importance that have been written about in reliable secondary sources. Sufficient reliable documentation of their particular role is required.

Entertainers

Actors, voice actors, comedians, opinion makers, models, and television personalities:

  1. Has had important roles in several notable movies, television shows, stage performances, or other productions.
  2. Has a large fan base or a significant "cult" following.
  3. Has made unique, prolific or innovative contributions to a field of entertainment.

Politicians

  1. Politicians and judges who have held international, national or sub-national (state-wide/province-wide) office.
  2. Members or former members of a national, state or provincial legislature. This is a secondary guideline. People who meet this guideline will almost always meet the main guidelines. Biographers and historians will usually have already written about the past and present holders of major political offices. However, this guideline makes sure that our coverage of major political offices, including all of the present and past holders of that office, will be complete. This will also apply to those who have been elected but not yet sworn into such offices.
  3. Major local political figures who have received significant press coverage. Generally speaking, mayors of cities of at least regional importance are likely to meet this criterion, as are members of the main citywide government or council of a major metropolitan city.
  4. Just being an elected local official, or an unelected candidate for political office, does not guarantee notability, although such people can still be notable if they meet the main guidelines of "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject of the article".

In the case of candidates for political office who do not meet this guideline, the general rule is to redirect to an appropriate page covering the election or political office sought in lieu of deletion. Relevant material from the biographical article can be merged into the election or political office page if appropriate. Deleting a biography in these cases instead of just redirecting it makes recovering useful information from the page history difficult, and should be done only when there are relevant reasons other than lack of notability for removing the article from the mainspace.

Invalid standards

People notable for only one event

When an individual is significant for his or her role in a single event, it may be unclear whether an article should be written about the individual, the event or both. In considering whether or not to create separate articles, the degree of significance of the event itself and the degree of significance of the individual's role within it should be considered. The general rule in many cases is to cover the event, not the person. However, as both the event and the individual's role grow larger, separate articles become justified.

If the event is highly significant, and the individual's role within it is a large one, a separate article is generally appropriate. The assassins of major political leaders, such as Gavrilo Princip, fit into this category, as indicated by the large coverage of the event in reliable sources that devotes significant attention to the individual's role.

When the role played by an individual in the event is less significant, an independent article may not be needed, and a redirect is appropriate. For example, George Holliday, who videotaped the Rodney King beating, redirects to Rodney King. On the other hand, if an event is of sufficient importance, even relatively minor participants may require their own articles, for example Howard Brennan, a witness to the JFK assassination.

Another issue arises when an individual plays a major role in a minor event. In this case, it is not generally appropriate to have an article on both the person and the event. Generally in this case, the name of the person should redirect to the article on the incident, especially if the individual is only notable for that incident and is all that that person is associated with in source coverage. For example, Steve Bartman redirects to Steve Bartman incident. In some cases, however, a person famous for only one event may be more widely known than the event itself, for example, the Tank Man. In such cases, the article about the event may be most appropriately named for the person involved.

Lists of people

Many articles include lists or are just lists of people. People included on lists should meet the notability standards above. Every person in any such list needs a reliable source which shows that the person is a member of the listed group.

For example, articles about schools often include (or link to) a list of notable alumni. These lists are not meant to list every graduate of the school—only those with verifiable notability. On the other hand, a list within an article of past school presidents can contain all past presidents, not just those who are independently notable.

Family

Being related to a notable person in itself does not make a person notable.