Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Dagbani Wikimedians User Group 2023 Annual Programs

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello , Dagbani Wikimedians User Group,

Thank you for applying for this round of funding. We continue to acknowledge your work and contribution to the movement through the different efforts including the Saha Program, which we remain keen to learn more about the impact you see this far. We also appreciate your  commitment to serving communities from other related languages and coordinating with them for increased impact. We continue to value the dedication of the team supporting the implementation of the current grant and proposed plan. Additionally we are excited to see you focusing on user experience , translation of Wikidata Lexemes and note that in Africa, Dagbani language has the highest number of lexemes.

To support us in the second part of the review process, please see our comments, questions and observations;

• We see a significant increase in your budget are are curious to learn more about ;
  • What’s the justification for the big change?
  • What necessitates the 100% increase in the staffing allowance?
  • Significant increase in the activity budget?
  • Having reviewed the budget and against the current grant, we are unsure if the budget is commensurate with the impact being proposed. There is a clear misalignment and especially with such a steep increase in budget. Would you comment on this observation?

• We are keen to learn more about the strategy informing the programmatic focus of the user group. Please share here a link to strategic plan if it exists.
• What is the TOC [ Theory of Change] of the tele-education program - what change have seen so far that speak to the effectiveness of the theory of change. Can you provide information about the content produced for TV?  What are the results so far and how do they connect to the theory of change?

• How does the reading wikipedia in the classroom program align with the other strategies indicated?
• Is the work with Wikimedia Germany confirmed or is still in discussion?
• Would you speak to your governance structure and how involved communities participate in decision making about current and future focus areas of the user group. How is the community involved in supporting and sharing in responsibility and accountability?
• Please review your learning , evaluation and sharing section ; there is a need to align your metrics to your learning questions for instance.
• Please share your honorarium policy.
• Share more on the engagement of consultants - what informed this request and need.
• Please share more on the micro-funding program - what structures are in place to support this or in case they are not, is there a plan or thinking done that you can share?
• The budget needs a review. The amount on the application is $193,000 but on the budget template it's $201,000 but upon review and doing the calculations ,we are finding $164,526.57. Please review.

As always we recommend meeting with the regional program officer to support you in providing any clarity needed with the feedback shared here. The committee is also available to meet and join the call if that would be meaningful for you - just let the program officer know.

Thank you so much and we continue to appreciate your work and role in advancing the mission of the movement.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and staff , VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 07:05, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Response from The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group

Thank you for your comments, suggestions, and recommendations.

Please find below our answers to your comments:

We see a significant increase in your budget are are curious to learn more about ;

• What’s the justification for the big change?

Ans:

Aside from the recent high inflation rate in Ghana, which has affected our current grant program due to the high cost of goods and services, our community has expanded from just 3 language communities to 5 as of October 2022 (Dagbani, Gurene, Moore, Dagaare, and the Kusaal Wikimedia communities). In addition to that, we have established three Wiki hubs at the Gbewaa College of Education, the Tamale College of Education, and the Bagabaga College of Education. Each community has a language Wikipedia project with active contributors and team leads who work to support their various language communities and need to be supported through our community support program. See below:

• Dagbani Wikipedia
• Gurene Wikipedia
• Moore Wikipedia (incubator)
• Dagaare Wikipedia (incubator)
• Kusaal Wikipedia (incubator)

The overall number of programs has also increased, including the Parliament of Ghana Wikibase Project, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom, et al.

What necessitates the 100% increase in the staffing allowance?

Ans:

The communities mentioned above have established teams playing various roles. Being responsible for these roles means that they need to be compensated through our community support program. Hence, this informs the seemingly increased total amount budgeted for staffing.

For each community, we have assigned two co-leads, a native speaker and one from the Dagbani team. The native speaker helps to recruit, facilitate, and engage the community, while the co-lead from the Dagbani community provides technical support to the community, including building capacities.

Significant increase in the activity budget? Having reviewed the budget and against the current grant, we are unsure if the budget is commensurate with the impact being proposed. There is a clear misalignment and especially with such a steep increase in budget. Would you comment on this observation?

Ans:

The reasons for the steep increase in the activity budget have already been enumerated in the first question. However, for clarity, the 2022 budget we applied for was 92768.68 USD, but based on the committee’s recommendation, we received 55,000 USD. We had a lot of plans, but the amount approved was almost half of what was requested, hence our inability to carry out all the activities. Also, the unexpected increase in inflation from 15.7% in February 2022 to 52.8% in February 2023, (increase in inflation: 37.1%). This necessitated a steep increase in the activity budget.

We are keen to learn more about the strategy informing the programmatic focus of the user group. Please share here a link to a strategic plan if it exists.

Ans:

Here is our strategic plan: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e0sL5LMRcC7DVXM3unlN_YlRogPTtUYc

What is the TOC of the tele-education program - what changes have seen so far that speak to the effectiveness of the theory of change. Can you provide information about the content produced for TV? What are the results so far and how do they connect to the theory of change?

Ans:

The Dagbani Wikipedia Saha was designed to recruit and train editors and also inform people about Wikipedia and how to contribute to the Dagbani Wikipedia right in their homes via TV sets. From phone calls and solidarity testimonies received at different functions organized in Ghana, the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group has been applauded for such a great initiative to increase the availability of the Dagbani language on the internet, especially on Wikipedia.

The content was carefully chosen to help viewers learn from known to unknown, from simple to complex, and from concrete to abstract. The first season was recorded without subtitles, but season two came with different content accompanied by subtitles, which makes the content even more useful for non-natives.

Here is a link to all 16 episodes from seasons 1 and 2.

https://www.youtube.com/@dagbaniwikipediasaha4011/videos

The content that was produced on TV was live-streamed on their Facebook page. Find the link to one of the videos here:

On the impact of the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha,

• We have recruited more volunteers in the last quarter.
• We have also tripled the number of Dagbani Wikipedia articles from a little over 2000 to over 6500 due to the new recruits.
• We have had increased engagement on social media through the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha.
• We increased the number of views on our YouTube channel (1,310 organic views from the 16 episodes in seasons 1 and 2).

The program has also attracted the attention of major stakeholders in Ghana to Wikipedia, including the Ghana Education Service, which is the mandatory body in charge of implementing educational policies in the country. There have been thoughts of incorporating Wikipedia into the education system. The belief is that, given the education and information about Wikipedia in the program, the education sector will have a pool of resources from it to facilitate effective teaching and learning in the schools. Our goal is to continue with the creation of awareness about Wikipedia through the program and get it accepted into the Ghanaian education system.

How does the reading Wikipedia in the classroom program align with the other strategies indicated?

Ans:

The majority of our community members are teachers and teacher trainees from the various teacher training colleges and the University of Education school that trained them to teach the languages from the various colleges and universities spotted across Ghana. Our collaboration with members of the Dagbani Teachers Association will not only teach them how to use resources from Wikipedia but also teach them how to become contributors to Wikimedia projects.

• We have an agreement with the Dagbani Teachers Association in Ghana to collaborate on implementing the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project.
• Certified trainers: Four (4) out of the five (5) certified trainers from Ghana are members of the Dagbani and Gurene Wikimedia communities. Our executive director and project manager are among the certified trainers for the ‘Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom’ program. As part of our community projects, all our certified trainers will work together to implement the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program in northern Ghana. We will train at least 100 senior high school teachers across Ghana. This program will also help teachers contribute more to Wikipedia as well as use Wikipedia as a teaching tool to facilitate teaching and learning.

Unfortunately, two of the certified trainers are contact people for the user group and are not eligible to apply for rapid grants. By doing so, we hope to implement it with the community as a whole. Please see a an MoU we have signed with the Literacy and Development through Partnerships (LDP): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gFf_d20L_sRl2lg5v59J3axlV12JHm1r/view?usp=sharing

Is the work with Wikimedia Germany confirmed or is still in discussion?

Ans:

Yes. We have the approval of Wikimedia Germany to collaborate on the Parliament of Ghana Wikibase project. See attached a joint proposal we submitted to the Parliament of Ghana in collaboration with the Wikimedia Germany partnership team.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RSdZnsxGEtMS1BkjByYzBeIPOab1ylI2/view

Would you speak to your governance structure and how involved communities participate in decision making about current and future focus areas of the user group.

Ans:

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group has a vibrant governance structure made up of team members from our various language communities. The hierarchy of the governance structure and the roles assigned to each level are found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Srn5i_YJ3I4ordswecF_AaA5zPliOk9x/view

We hold quarterly meetings in which community members are mostly invited to participate. At these meetings, updates on ongoing activities are shared, and participants are given the opportunity to speak about challenges that are realized in the process of running the community activities.

We also hold an annual general meeting in December to reflect on our achievements, discuss challenges encountered, and plan our way forward. At these meetings, participants are usually encouraged to bring forth their suggestions and ideas. The ideas of the community contribute towards impacting the decisions and objectives of the community.

How is the community involved in supporting and sharing responsibility and accountability?

Ans:

As a community, we are involved in supporting and sharing responsibility and accountability in various ways:

In order to determine what activities are most useful to the community, we conducted a survey to find out what programs our community members are most interested in. See below for their responses.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TJoo2l5PaUl7GwbnN3tsyE6jdCsmvnvd/view

Community engagement: The community is engaged in various outreach activities such as organizing workshops, editathons, and training sessions to promote the use of Wikimedia projects among Dagbani speakers.

Open communication: The community retains open communication channels such as mailing lists and social media groups where plans, ideas, and challenges are discussed.

Decision-making: We involve all the language leads in our decision-making processes, such as writing grants and the activities to be undertaken for a particular period.

Please review your learning , evaluation and sharing section; there is a need to align your metrics to your learning questions for instance.

Ans:

We have reviewed our learning, evaluation, and sharing section.

Please share your honorarium policy.

Ans:

Please see our honorarium policy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OPmAFt1Rn-QsDL2DyYF6W8Iq1vLSdEjNUb7NN0mB8EI/edit

Share more on the engagement of consultants - what informed this request and need.

Ans:

We will engage the services of a financial consultant to provide general services related to proposal budgets, accounting and auditing services.

The learning and evaluation consultant will help us evaluate our programs, provide expert advice on the programs, and analyze the collected data.

Please share more on the micro-funding program - what structures are in place to support this or in case they are not, is there a plan or thinking done that you can share?

Ans:

Please see our micro-funding program guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/132sGFW-DyJxY4itnrCXtyVccvUo42bKm6pnSqpkyxW0/edit?usp=sharing

The budget needs a review. The amount on the application is $193,000 but on the budget template it's $201,000 but upon review and doing the calculations ,we are finding $164,526.57. Please review.

Ans:

Thank you for drawing our attention. Our budget has been revised and updated.

Once again, thank you so much for reviewing our grant application. We look forward to the next steps. Shahadusadik (talk) 01:35, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

Proposal updated based on MEA committee recommendations

Please find an updated budget recommended by the MEA committee.

Old budget: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HZ_nLbRXwt-v33y38lvQQHtnVz1t2ex8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108295047142609504446&rtpof=true&sd=true

Recommended new budget: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KoA7GYr5yeK7lMb5AimE3YTTkdSbuONt/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108295047142609504446&rtpof=true&sd=true Shahadusadik (talk) 00:02, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund Approved in the amount of 75000 USD

Dear, Dagbani Wikimedians User Group,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed your application and recommended funding in the amount of $75,000 for the period of July 2023 - June 2024.

We continue to see the impact of your work and especially within the language community and your intention in growing the program to include more language communities. After a thorough review of the application, together with the responses to the feedback and questions we shared earlier, we advise that; Make your mini-granting program publicly available to promote transparency and opportunities for learning and sharing within the community. At the moment , it is not straightforward where someone can find this information. We recommend making this program public and easily accessible to support community members in accessing it, knowing the criteria and review process and also promote transparency and openness. We were concerned about your honorarium policy and found it challenging to understand its purpose and criteria used. It seemed to us that everyone is currently accessing it for their volunteer contribution. Kindly review. We also found it challenging from the data you shared about how the larger community is involved in the decision making process of the user group. We see an opportunity for the user group to review their approach of how the community is meaningfully involved in the strategic direction and implementation of the user group’s work. We continue to see the ambition of the group to scale its work quickly and invite you to reflect on ‘ the why’ of this goal from an impact perspective or lens. While growth is useful, it is important it is guided by an impact plan and this includes having a clear theory of change that speaks to how the different interventions lead to the impact you desire. We advise that the user group refrains from what we see as a compensation oriented approach influencing your leadership structure. We believe there is opportunity for leading on various fronts that does not necessarily have to have compensation attached or linked to it. This is especially important for the sustainability of the community. We see an opportunity to grow your evaluation and learning capacities and recommend dedicated 10% of your awarded grant to support this effort. We recommend establishing a volunteer led advisory board to support in ensuring healthy governance. We would hope to see more volunteers taking lead including on matters related to the governance of the community.

We hope this feedback and recommendations are useful in guiding your work now and in the future. Thank you for your contribution to the movement ; we value you as a community and partner in the movement and remain committed to ensuring you are supported in your work.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and staff , --Aristidek5maya (talk) 15:43, 29 May 2023 (UTC)