Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Global Open Initiative Annual Wikimedia Activities For The Year 2023

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

Hello User:Mwintirew , User:Kinvidia and User:Jemima2019,

We hope you have been well. Thank you for taking the time to prepare and submit your proposal and for your patience with the review process. We recognize that this is your second proposal for general support funding and we are excited to see your intention to continue developing the community in Ghana and embark on increasing your organizational capacity including increasing the team capacity dedicated to supporting the projects. We also noticed your intention to form collaborations with civil society organizations such as CSRI Library) and to work with other Wikimedian communities such as Dagbani Wikimedians and Igbo Wikimedians.

To support us in our continued review process please share your comments, and responses on the following;

• We observed that there was no defined operation schedule, would you share this with us?

Answer Please find a link to our schedule

• We noticed that your team includes 16 roles including advisors and we are keen to learn more about the role each one played in detail. Would you share a staffing plan? In the staff plan please share the rationale for the costs attached to the paid staff. For instance, Can you tell us the rationale for coming up with the project manager's salary? We are also keen to learn how the roles are managed and supported.

Answer Here is link to our staffing plan including a response to how roles are managed.

• Please indicate the roles of the advisors indicated.

Answers The advisors mentioned in our proposal are well experienced Wikimedians who currently serve on the board of GOIF. Just like any advisory board they offer their skills, guidance, and knowledge in areas where the main GOIF team falls short. They help in settling disputes, connecting us to other experienced Wikimedians, appointing leaders and we seek advice from them concerning project execution and administration.

• In your metrics section, we were unclear on the metric ‘ Number of page views per 100 items’ would you provide clarity on this as well?

Answer Based on the metrics, we hope to count an accumulated amount of at least 150 page views for a total of 100 items using Wikipedia Page View Statistics and Wikidata Page View Analysis

• Additionally, we encourage you to review the metrics section to also align with the learning questions you have indicated. What metrics can you use to help you capture what you need to support your learning?

Answer We have reviewed and edited the metric section.

• Regarding the number of content pages created or improved on English Wikipedia and Wikipedia Twi (800); Could you give us precise figures of pages to be created and pages to be improved; For example, the number of pages to be created and the number of pages to be improved. Also, for the pages to be created, can we know if it is only translations in Twi and English languages that you will make of pages already existing on Wikipedia in other languages, or if it is new topics of articles that you intend to introduce on the encyclopedia?

Answer We have provided a further breakdown in out grant proposal.

• Kindly complete the response to question 12.

Answer Completed in our grant proposal.

• Could you share more on the photos of televised works of art project?

Answer This project is aimed towards contributing culturally themed images on the 16 regions in Ghana to wikimedia commons. The project will involve gaining permission to be at durbar grounds and also taking pictures.

• As you continue to grow we are keen to understand your plan for leadership development and nurturing robust structures for healthy governance including financial management systems in your organization. We would like to know what you have put in place so far and where you envision the organization heading and the plan to get there.

Answer Our leadership development is based on improving the capacity of our team through delegation of roles and executing tasks and responsibilities as leads for sub-projects under the main project. The plan of dividing projects is not only meant to expedite processes but also intended to sharpen the leadership skills of our team members. As the organization grows, team leaders are expected to be able to handle larger projects overtime, based on the experience they have gained, and also mentor new and inexperienced volunteers.This style of mentorship is expected to help inexperienced volunteers learn these leadership skills on the job. In the future, the organization hopes that the leadership skills nurtured in volunteers will enable them to be of use to the Wikimedia foundation as staff at varying areas and levels, lead or found Wikimedia mission and vision aligned organizations to spearhead the goals of the Wikimedia movement. To ensure a healthy governance we incorporate a mix of top down and bottom up approach in decision making. This is mostly done through open discussions, surveys and personal conversations. At the moment our finance is managed by keeping an expense sheet where our daily transactions are recorded. We also use a banking application that helps us to efficiently make transactions and keep record of our transactional history. We envision a Ghana where open knowledge has broken through all aspects of our social life especially in education and technology. We plan to get there by continuing to organize training and workshops to educate the public on open data, organize training and workshops to educate the public on the use of open technologies Extend open activities to remote areas especially the three northern regions of Ghana

• We are also curious to understand your model of grooming Wikimedia communities such as the LUGG community. What is your long-term when working with these emerging groups? How do you support them and what is the relationship beyond your ‘incubation’ role? And what do you see as the appropriate sustainability approach for such groups?

Answer Our model of grooming is a model that tries to raise potential groups and capacitate groups to levels where they can operate on their own as independent communities. These groups usually begin as subsidiaries or subgroups of the Global Open Initiative Foundation, or small independent groups with visions that align with the Wikimedia Movement. Our long term goal with these organizations is to remain potential partners where and when needed while we acknowledge their independence as completely separate entities from GOIF. We envision that these groups will follow the GOIF model by also growing to nurture and grow younger groups that will also become independent mission aligned entities in the future.

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 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) 13:22, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Dear VThamaini (WMF), Please find above our responses to the questions raised. Thank you.Mwintirew (talk) 01:54, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of 36000 USD

Hello Global Open Initiative ,

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 36,000 USD, with a grant term starting January 2023 to December 2023.

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 $36,000 for the period January - December 2023.

We recognize this is your second annual grant and see, from your mid-point report, its value and impact in supporting long-term programs and the development of partnerships with missioned aligned organizations. We see the opportunity proposed to work on projects such as Wiki Data and Wikimedia Commons to strengthen existing partnerships in Ghana.

We are keen to learn about the outcomes of your proposed new ideas of working with influencers in Ghana and being part of popular shows such as Ghana’s Most Beautiful as awareness and content development strategy.

We also see the value of your work in building the capacity of youth and in supporting them in grooming resulting communities. We invite you to reflect on a more sustainable means of supporting these emerging communities taking into consideration the efforts and skills needed to be an independent group and organization. With this, we are requesting that you continue supporting the LUCG Wiki Club, which we believe will be better supported within your program. Please note that we will not be funding LUCG’s grant request and will be directing them to you instead for continued support. Mustapha, from the LUCG team already had discussions with the regional program officer and was open to continuing with this option.

We wish you the very best in your project and look forward to learning about the impact of you achieve.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:32, 1 December 2022 (UTC)