Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/2019 Community Conversations/Strategy Salons/Reports/Igbo UG

Date and location

24th August 2019 Cavic Nigeria, No.30 Agadez Street, opposite Glo Office, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja, Nigeria.

Participant List

What happened

We started the salon by 1 pm with a presentation about the Wikimedia Foundation. This discussion was to enlighten visitors among us about Wikimedia. The next presentation was Wikimedia 2030 strategic direction; this presentation then ushered us into the discussion of two thematic topics:Advocacy and partnership. We voiced our opinion on three question from each thematic topics and concluded the salon by 5:30PM.

Summary of the discussion points

The discussions about the two topics are as follows:

Advocacy:

It is a way to tackle social injustice, the act of soliciting, influencing change.
Advocacy in Wikimedia cuts across these areas:

Political Issues
Economic issues
Education
Social barriers, etc.

Question 1:
How do we ensure that our community's various context are represented through advocacy?

Sugestions:

Through the use of social media to create awareness for our projects and promote our initiatives.
Organize workshops and programs to engage schools and institutions.

Question 2:
What is needed to encourage and inspire advocates for the Wikimedia movement?

Suggestions:

1. Ensure that they are equipped with the resources needed for work.

2. Establish a reward system; this can be intrinsic or extrinsic that is transparent.

Question 3:
What kind of legal, public policy and activist capacities do we need within the movement, organisations and communities, and how can we build them.

Suggestions:

We need decision-makers, legislators and influencers in the media, education, etc.

Lobbying can help turn our advocacy into action. For example, people in key positions like the Minister of culture and education can help champion policies that will ensure knowledge sharing in schools and museums in Nigeria. Also, lobby legislators in Basic Education committees can cause action.

Partnership:

it is an arrangement where parties, known as partners, agree to cooperate to advance a mutual interest.

The discussion focused on:

Opportunities and challenges related to building partnerships in local, regional and global levels.
How we can scale the work that we do beyond our capacity and reach.
Collaboration with other Organisation and movement.
The move in our strategic direction with opportunities for broader impact.

We looked at the things limiting us, that is situations that don't help us in Partnership:

The design of projects around individual contributors.
Our technologies (Not user-friendly to accommodate collaboration from institutions)
Most of our partnerships are project-based

From our discussions, we decided to make a list of Organisations we should partner with locally as an affiliate and as a movement.

For local partnership:

Ministry of Art and culture.
National Library
Center for memories
Ministry of Education
MTN Foundation
Heritage Bank
BBC Igbo

On a global level:

UNESCO
UNICEF
Disney World
Nickelodeon
BBC
Al Jazeera
GOOGLE

The questions asked:

Question 1:

How do we build capacities to successfully work together, especially in regions where we still lack sustainable partnerships.

suggestions:

This can be achieved by engaging partnership consultants to develop strategies to improve Partnership.
Use Partnership consultants to train key people in the movement and position them as partnership strategist in different regions of concern. These people will ensure collaborations in major projects, scrutinise partnership opportunities before engagements and develop frameworks for partnerships in the movement.

Question 2:

Which areas do we need partners, what partners do we want to work with?

Suggestions

We grouped the areas as follows:

Knowledge access

Collaboration is essential in this area to provide free or affordable access to educational content. Partnership with companies in The Telecommunication Industry, like>

MTN
Vodacom Group
Orascom Telecom
Maroc Telecom, etc.

It was pointed out that we can partner with mobile phone companies to include software or chip that will store educational content from Wikimedia projects into phones.

2.Knowledge Contribution and Knowledge drivers
Collaboration is essential to have relevant content that reflects all human knowledge.

Learning Institutions like:
Nigerian Universities
War Museums
Nigerian Institute of Translators and Interpreters.

3.Knowledge kits and teaching aids
Collaboration is essential here to provide knowledge in a way that diverse people can use it irrespective of age and other factors. We can collaborate with:

App developers
Gadget companies

Question 3:
What structural, including technical, changes might we need to make to be more partner-friendly?
Sugestions: Encourage partnership in our project structure and the approval of major projects and grants. For example, we can insist that projects like Wiki Loves Africa must be executed with partners that will play vital roles in the success of the project.

It was asked "what does it mean to be partner-friendly?

replies:

To have a good MOU that is understood by all involved.
To have a brand value and Integrity
To duly recognise and appreciate partners (especially external partners) through certificates and other means deemed fit.

Reflections from participants or partners

Our members were happy that they took part in the movement strategy conversations.