Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda General Support Fund 2024

Proposal Feedback and Invite for Comments & Response

Thank you for submitting your application. After the review process please find the feedback - comments and questions below for your response;

Thank you so much for the feedback on our application, please find below our responses. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• We find your work continuing to be intentional about working on issues of diversity, inclusion while being enabled by partnerships. We also appreciated you sharing in detail how different partners contribute to specif programs.

Thank you for the feedback. We still in the process to finalize our 5 year strategy which will inform all our future programming. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• We also found the program feasible and with opportunities to strengthen a few aspects such as the organization;
  • We find that you have a huge volume of work especially in relation to campaigns are curious to know how your strategy is informing this volume?

Our ongoing focus is on three key areas: photographic contests, diversity and content generation, and education, aligning with our interim strategy while we finalize our 5-year strategy. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Are there blue sky goals you are aiming for ? E.g X articles from the user group that warrant this volume?

Our overarching ‘blue sky’ goals is enhancing Uganda’s education sector with Wikimedia content, and creating awareness about Wikimedia within Uganda. In addition to that we would like to increase the number of Wikimedia contributors in Uganda. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Also how are you navigating the risk of burnout and overstretching the team and at the same time risking having a bloated personnel management ?

To mitigate burnout risks, we emphasize mentorship, community leadership growth through events like AGMs, and a wider volunteer base. Additionally, our evolving strategy aims to streamline roles and tasks. We would to get more clarification on what is meant by ‘bloated personnel management’. Our goal is to optimize our team structure to effectively manage projects through our 5 year strategy which we hope to finalize in the coming year. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

On this as well, what have you put in place to inform that the value you are providing is indeed working in terms of impact.

We evaluate our impact by collecting participant feedback post-campaigns, documenting community stories through videos and blogs, and fostering collaboration between project and activity leads. In the future, we plan to establish a comprehensive Monitoring & Evaluation plan, utilize dashboards for metrics, and engage with partners/stakeholders for feedback. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• • While management is well supported by experienced Wikimedians, we are curious to learn of any thinking of including interest newcomers to learn from you and support building a pipeline of leaders for future succession planning?

We’re dedicated to nurturing newcomers within our community. Through all our programs and activities we try to make sure that there is mentorship of new people to take on leadership roles, we do this by dividing up roles for each project, for example a single project like Wiki Loves Africa will have different people cordinating the organizing, with different roles like Jury coordination, communications, event planning and finance. We make an open call for people to fill in these roles for different projects, but its a way of mentorship and capacity building for future leaders of the community. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• • Kindly review the personnel section of the operations - we found 5 roles with the same title.

In our personnel section, we have delineated two roles (Finance/Admin and Project Management). The project management role is a part time role shared by 5 individuals with each person working 8 hours per week. Though the title is the same, the part time roles manage different projects for the user group. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• • Would you speak more to the internship program we see introduced in the budget?

The internship program aims to empower volunteers by offering hands-on experience. It bridges academia and real-world application, fostering leadership development while offering strategic support during staff absences. The amount in the budget for the internship is not a salary but allowance to cover expenses like transportation and meals for the intern to work with us full time for a period of three months. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• We found the metrics suggested to be low compared to the programs being implemented and requested resourcing.

Our focus is not only quantitative metrics but also qualitative metrics. We consider certain qualitative activities like sensitization and advocacy as valuable components that may not always be quantifiable. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• Would you share your approach on community participation in events and conferences such as Wikimania, Wiki Indaba and others you have indicated costs for in Row 237.

Regarding community participation in events like Wikimania, we locally review applications to select representatives from our user group. For example for Wikimania 2022, 30 individuals from the user group were supported with internet data and transport to participate in the conference, there was an open call for applications and a review by a committee made up of community members to select the participants. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

• We are interested in learning how you engage volunteers in being part of leading activieits even you have paid staff assigned as project leads?

We delegate roles to volunteers such as communication, event coordination, partnerships, etc., encouraging capacity building. Volunteers receive stipends for expenses incurred during their involvement, ensuring inclusivity and recognizing their contributions. --Kateregga1 (talk) 14:06, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Expert reviewers feedback

Overall Recommendations / Opportunities Seen : The annual plan looks absolutely exciting! I would only make a cautious call to consider that participating in that many campaigns could be exhausting and yield less fruits than what one could expect and a tricky path towards retention (a trend that has been seen in different regions).

I would give a time to reflect on past campaigns and improve, for instance by drawing lessons from the successful Art+Feminism pages such as ;

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryn_Agyeman_Prempeh
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asinansi_Nyakato
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavia_Nabagabe_Kalule
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Tuhaise

to create a strategy for preventing deleted pages in the future (like working more with the sandbox (and/or using the improved template - see an example). This could be useful for other campaigns like Wiki For Refugees, EveryBookItsReader, etc.

As for GLAM-specific campaigns, I would be interested in learning more about the introduction “to new tools such as and more retrospective ways to work with scholarly output from Uganda”. The User Group has already built a relationship with the National Library of Uganda and I would be interested in learning if to promote scholarly outputs from Uganda to digitize either to WikiSource or Wikidata the 5,600 records of National Bibliography of Uganda or to connect the National Repository of Uganda in a similar way the University of Ghana has connected its contents which now allows for interesting queries such as: 1) Articles in Journals with an African Journals Online ID, published in Ghana, about diseases . Article list: https://w.wiki/7eQU (bubble chart: https://w.wiki/7eQQ) 2) A timeline of Authors the repository which can be filtered by nationality or occupation.

Lastly, it may be helpful to perhaps asking an administrator to provide a view of past deleted pages such as ;

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuena_Kirema;
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Tumusiime
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahara_Toto
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doreen_Komuhangi )

We highly recommend you get in touch with the regional program officer to support you in understanding the questions raised or if you find it useful to meet with the committee as well, please let them know and they can organize a conversation meeting.

Thank you and we look forward to receiving your responses to support us in the next steps. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff - VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 08:33, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

General Support Fund Approved at 325,000,002.60 UGX

Dear Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The MEA Regional Committee and Staff have thoroughly reviewed, discussed and deliberated upon your application and made the decision to fund you at 325,000,002.60 UGX for a grant period of 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.

Here are a few points to note;

• We found your work to be well structured. As you finalize your strategy , we see an opportunity to align the annual plan with it.
• We would like to see more diversity in the organizers as we mentioned in the previous feedback. You can work with the leadership development working group team to support you in developing a leadership program to serve your goals.

We hope to continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Do set up a regular schedule to connect with your MEA Programme Officer based on your needs.

The reporting requirements for the grant will shared in your grant agreement and on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

Once again, Congratulations! We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on a new year of project implementation. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:47, 15 December 2023 (UTC)