Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Free Knowledge Africa Development Support

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

Hello Timmylegend, Haylad and Bilijin

Thank you for taking the time to submit your proposal. We are pleased to have reviewed it and have the following comments and questions;

• We found your proposal to be very clear, understandable and well structured.
• We are excited with the idea that the applicants are planning to contribute to a project that has not been much contributed to in Africa and the capacity building and upskilling project and especially on Wikimedia projects such as WikiVoyage.
• Seeing that you have implemented some of the programming in a previous project, funded by a project grant, would you share the learnings from the project that you would be bringing to this project.
• We see that the core team players are primarily from Nigeria only, yet, your objectives focus on other countries, what is your plan of engaging communities in other countries and especially in the development of activities.
• We did not see details on the Mini-grants program on the proposal page but found it listed in the budget document. Would you share more details? What criteria will you use to fund the mini-grant applicants?
• Apart from the financial risk that you have identified, what are the other risks and how are you planning to mitigate them?
• It is not clear on the budget document about the $1000 assigned to digitization, please provide more details about this.

Questions from staff;

• Would you share with us how you have managed resources before. What financial systems structures and skills have been useful in the past that will be handy in managing this proposed grant?
• Please share with us how the roles and responsibilities have been shared in the past amongst team members and how those roles will shift, given that the scale and scope of your proposal is bigger.
• How have you ensured accountability and transparency are achieved in your organisation and towards the community members you engage.

We see a significant portion of your resources is on staff and while we understand the purpose of the request we have a few questions to support us in understanding the measures you have put in place to support this transition from volunteer-led to hiring staff to manage projects;

• What is the basis/rationale informing the staff costs?
• Have you taken time to review the labour laws and regulations and what policies have you put in place to be complaint
• Employees' experience in organizations is enabled by organizational culture and in thinking about the experience you hope the proposed staff would have, might you have thought about the organization’s culture and other organizational elements associated with hiring staff.
• Additionally, who would the staff be reporting to and getting support from?
• Seeing that there will be a compensation/staff costs element, it would be financially appropriate that the payment is made from a legally recognized organization. Having mentioned that, are you legally registered and if not, what is your intended plan of action.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 08:31, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Hello Victoria,

We are glad to receive the feedback, and we have the following answers to the questions above:

Q1. Seeing that you have implemented some of the programming in a previous project, funded by a project grant, would you share the learnings from the project that you would be bringing to this project.

The previous project served as a pilot for the current project. We plan to continue with the project at a. Continental-scale and at some point in different languages. This will help make information about travelling within Africa readily available and boost the local economies. The project was a great success, we were successfully able to raise awareness about the existence of Wikivoyage as a travel guide to travel and tour operators. We have been able to bridge a huge gap about Nigerian destinations on Wikipedia and Wikivoyage. We have been able to achieve our overall goal of reducing the knowledge gap of travel information available on the English Wikivoyage for Nigerian destinations (States, Cities and Towns) and highlighting the tourism potential in the various destinations and positioning the English Wikivoyage as a reliable travel advisory for travelling in Nigeria.

We raised awareness about Wikivoyage via social media while also leveraging on Wikipedia and the possibilities it offers to promoting tourism, knowledge, integration, cultural heritage and development in Nigeria and the huge knowledge gap that exists about travel information on Wikivoyage, with a call to action via a contest/campaign to bridge the gap.

We created short instructional and small sized (to overcome the challenges of poor internet) videos that will explain and highlight the process of editing and creating articles on Wikivoyage.

We organized training sessions for participants via zoom and built a community that will promote and coordinate collaboration to create new articles and improve existing articles about Nigeria/Africa on Wikivoyage.

We organized writing and photography contests on bridging knowledge gaps about Nigerian destinations on Wikimedia Commons, Wikivoyage and Wikipedia.

We have also met with one of Wikivoyage longtime contributors to share our thoughts and exchange ideas.

We understand better how Wikivoyage works and the different types of articles that can be created.

Q2. We see that the core team players are primarily from Nigeria only, yet, your objectives focus on other countries, what is your plan of engaging communities in other countries and especially in the development of activities.

All the core team members are currently from Nigeria. We started contributing to Wikivoyage in early 2021 and we have been able to build an editing and contributing community to Wikivoyage in Nigeria, one of the few (or only in Africa). However, we have built relationships with some Wikimedians in Nigeria and Ghana since last year about extending the campaign to their countries. We also presented our project at the Wiki Indaba conference in 2021 in which attendees of the session showed interest in participating.

Q3. We did not see details on the Mini-grants program on the proposal page but found it listed in the budget document. Would you share more details? What criteria will you use to fund the mini-grant applicants?

The mini-grants program is a part of the Free Knowledge Leadership and Training Program that will equip free knowledge enthusiasts and beginners with the skills required to become free and open knowledge advocates. We would be awarding mini-grants to participants of the program to complete a small scale capstone project for a content drive campaign or awareness event for Wikimedia projects. Participants in the program would be asked to submit a short and simple application.

Q4. Apart from the financial risk that you have identified, what are the other risks and how are you planning to mitigate them?

One of the risks identified is scope creep in our projects; continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project’s scope, at any point after the project begins. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered harmful. We intend to stick to the schedule and the timelines with constant internal reviews to measure our progress.

Q5. It is not clear on the budget document about the $1000 assigned to digitization, please provide more details about this.

The $1000 assigned to digitization is part of the OpenGLAM advocacy to GLAM Institutions in Nigeria. We intend to digitize the collections at some institutions we are able to convince to open up their collections.

Q6. Would you share with us how you have managed resources before. What financial systems structures and skills have been useful in the past that will be handy in managing this proposed grant?

In the past, we had a dedicated simple bookkeeping sheet where we record all inflows from our grants and expenses incurred during the execution of our previous grants. We keep a timely record of all project expenses. We would maintain a joint account that requires the authorization of the two signatories to the account.

Q7. Please share with us how the roles and responsibilities have been shared in the past amongst team members and how those roles will shift, given that the scale and scope of your proposal is bigger.

In the past, User:Timmylegend has handled the strategic and growth part of different projects, as well working on communications. He would be managing the projects and facilitating the creation of landing pages, instructional videos/materials, virtual meetings and selection of speakers/trainers on virtual training workshops for new members.

User:Haylad had been the Lead instructor for the team. He has previously organised the Afrocine Nigeria Contests and facilitated multiple events and training. He was also the Regional ambassador for the 2021 HACK4OPENGLAM that took place during the 2021 CC summit. He will be in charge of training, recruiting and onboarding new members during the projects. He is also going to be the GLAM specialist on the team based on his experience working with GLAM professionals and institutions.

User:Bilijin is an experienced mobile developer and Wikimedian with a knack for prudence, she had been contributing to the Wikimedia project since 2018. She will be in charge of result collation, disclosure of Winners, surveys and feedback. She would also be providing support to participants on our projects to ensure seamless participation.

Q8. How have you ensured accountability and transparency are achieved in your organisation and towards the community members you engage.

To ensure accountability and transparency, all our proposals are posted publicly on our Meta page, as well as the projects and community discussion pages and our social media channels. The project reports are also shared publicly and all the team members are notified of all progress made and expenses incurred. We would be doing the same to this project as we have done in the past. We have a track record of financial transparency and accountability, we always reach out to the grant officers for approval to make any changes to the proposal and seek advice in case there is a conflict of interest. All rapid and project grant reports we have submitted in the past have also been accepted without any issue.

Q9. What is the basis/rationale informing the staff costs?

The remuneration is based on the duties, experience, and projected working hours. Staff will work for 10hrs per week at the rate of $22.5/hr (10hrs x $22.5) with 4 weeks each month (i.e. 4 weeks at $225 per week is $900 per month for 10 months).

Q10. Have you taken time to review the labour laws and regulations and what policies have you put in place to be complaint

Yes, we have reviewed the labor laws and other laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and all staff are permitted to work in the country. We would ensure that all the laws and regulations are followed as required and any conflict of interest will be reported immediately to the (WMF) for resolution before any further actions are taken. Some policies we would be adopting include: Salaries would be paid and all applicable taxes are to be paid by staff and Salaries would be paid monthly and would not exceed the last working day of the month.

Q11. Employees' experience in organizations is enabled by organizational culture and in thinking about the experience you hope the proposed staff would have, might you have thought about the organization’s culture and other organizational elements associated with hiring staff.

Our organization's culture is based on respect for one another, respecting and appreciating volunteer contributions, maintaining civility, and the Wikimedia friendly space policies. We are engaging staffs who are already familiar with our culture with a good track record of volunteering for our community. The ideal candidate would be experienced in partnerships, community engagement, project management, the Universal Code of Conduct (UCOC), and the Wikimedia Movement Strategy.

Q12. Additionally, who would the staff be reporting to and getting support from?

The staff would be reporting to the executive members of the organization and the Advisory Board who are longtime experienced members of the Wikimedia community.

Q13. Seeing that there will be a compensation/staff costs element, it would be financially appropriate that the payment is made from a legally recognized organization. Having mentioned that, are you legally registered and if not, what is your intended plan of action.

Free Knowledge Africa is legally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a Non Profit/Non Governmental organization.

Timmylegend (talk) 11:18, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of $25,000USD

Hello Timmylegend, Haylad and Bilijin,

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of $25,000USD, with a grant term starting 1 July 2022 and ending 30th June 2023.

It is exciting to see Free Knowledge Africa grow as an organization and in their programming as well especially comparing their proposed work to their latest project grant. We find it interesting that you are focusing on smaller / less popular Wikimedia projects such as Wikivoyage and on topics around travel, and sports especially, those relevant to African context and cultures.

After reviewing your capacity, noting that you have implemented similar activities in the past, and taking into account the increased scope and scale of the proposed projects we recommend funding at $25,000. We recommend that you reduce the scope of the project recognizing that some of the suggested programs such as Open GLAM advocacy take a lot of effort and need the engagement of multiple stakeholders at different sector levels. The current target of working with 25 institutions can be reduced, additionally, review the goal of continental scaling and instead focus on a few countries in different regions on the continent.

Additionally, please identify and indicate the specific regions, countries and area topics the project will focus on. We had a challenge understanding the costs associated with digitization even after seeking clarification from you. We also had a look at your outputs of the main project and realize that the contributions made are minimal. We encourage you to create more space for volunteers to be part of the project and take lead on various projects and roles. A clear transparent process needs to be put in place allowing people to learn what process was used to identify those taking lead on various projects.

As you progress through the project, it will be useful to identify tools that will allow you to track and share the outputs of activities such as edit-a-thons.

Overall, it is great to see the project grow and we look forward to learning more about the impact you achieve over time,

Thank you for your work and all you do for the community and Wikimedia Movement.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 18:01, 20 May 2022 (UTC)