ORCID–WACA is a WACREN-led initiative, supported by the ORCID Global Participation Fund, to drive the adoption of ORCID across West and Central Africa and make the region’s researchers and research more visible, citable, and connected on the global stage.

The case for action is clear. Low adoption of persistent identifiers (PIDs) such as ORCID limits the visibility of African scholarship and reinforces the misconception that the continent produces little research. Most African researchers encounter ORCID only when submitting to a journal, institutional and journal mandates remain rare, and awareness is especially low outside STEM, making it difficult to attribute work accurately, demonstrate institutional productivity, or showcase the true impact of African scholarship.

WACREN has been steadily laying the foundation for change. Outputs deposited in the BAOBAB repository are assigned Archival Resource Keys (ARKs) for long-term discoverability; a series of regional workshops have introduced researchers, librarians, and publishers to the value of PIDs; and the COPPHA training programme has equipped more than 600 early-, mid-career, and senior researchers in equitable and transparent publishing.

Building on this momentum, ORCID–WACA will raise awareness of ORCID’s benefits, support its integration with institutional repositories and other research infrastructure, and grow regional capacity through the Ambassadors Programme and the Community of Practice, closing participation gaps in the Global South and embedding PIDs in the long-term research infrastructure of West and Central Africa.