Grants:Project/MSIG/Enhancing WISCom Capacity to Support the WISCom Charter

statusFunded

WISCom/Enhancing WISCom Capacity to Support the WISCom Charter

Application for funding to accelerate the implementation of the WISCom Charter and establish WISCom as a central hub for supporting the African Wikimedia community.

targetThe charter aims to transform WISCom from solely organising the WikiIndaba conference to addressing the broader challenges faced by the African Wikimedia community. This shift will positively impact numerous Wikimedia projects and languages across the African continent.

start date1 July

start year2024

end date128 February

end year2025

budget (local currency)916 766 ZAR

grant typeGroup

non-profit statusWe are not yet incorporated. We are however looking for Wikimedia South Africa to act as our fiscal sponsor should the funds get approved.

grantee• Bobbyshabangu

contact(s)• bobby.shabangu

wikimedia.org.za• jboateng@ofwafrica.org

organization (if applicable)• WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom)

website (if applicable)• WISCOM

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Applications are not required to be in English. Please complete the application in your preferred language.

Project Goal

What will be the outputs of your project and how will those outputs contribute to advancing a specific Movement Strategy Initiative

We seek to establish a WISCom charter that will transform WISCom from solely organising the WikiIndaba conference into a registered organisation that serves as a hub to address the broader challenges faced by the African Wikimedia community. With this funding, we also aim to hire an employee who will facilitate communication between the African community and WISCom and implement proposals from the African Agenda.

What specific Movement Strategy Initiative does your project focus on and why? Please select one of the initiatives described here

Ensure Equity in Decision-Making
Regional & thematic hubs
Enhance communication and collaboration capacity with partners and collaborators

Project Background

When do you intend to begin this project and when will it be completed?: We have already drafted a WISCom Charter during a retreat in Johannesburg, South Africa, in July 2023. However, progress has been slow due to the absence of a dedicated employee at WISCom to drive the process and ensure adherence to timelines. This challenge is further compounded by WISCom's monthly meetings and its reliance on volunteers. The Charter identifies having an employee as essential for accelerating its implementation and establishing a hub. We believe this is the ideal time to bring an employee on board.
Are you collaborating with other communities or affiliates on this project? Please provide details of how partners intend to work together to achieve the project goal.: We are collaborating with the African Wikimedia community, including participants of the Afrika Baraza and WikiIndaba conferences, as well as WMF staff, to bring this document to fruition.
What specific challenge will your project be aiming to solve? And what opportunities do you plan to take advantage of to solve the problem?

During WikiIndaba 2022 in Rwanda, conference participants identified several common challenges faced by Africans across the continent, all of them can be classified into 3 key challenges collectively termed the African Agenda as follows:

Equity in Representation
Leadership and Capacity Building
Community and Ecosystem Development

Conference participants also proposed solutions to these challenges. Subsequently, they mandated WISCom to be the custodian of the African Agenda. Currently, WISCom is transitioning from a committee dedicated solely to organizing the WikiIndaba conference into a registered organization, a process guided by the WISCom charter.
Does this project aim to apply one of the examples shared in the call for grants and if so which one?: We aim to use the funds to transform WISCom into a hub that will support Wikimedians across the African continent. This transformation will facilitate the continuation of conversations from the WikiIndaba conference through the African Baraza, and will match Wikimedians with expertise in specific areas to those in need of those skills, ensuring effective skill transfer. Ultimately all the issues we are looking to address are codified under the African Agenda which is centered on the Wikimedia Movement Strategy 2023.

Project Activities

What specific activities will be carried out during this project? Please describe the specific activities that will be carried out during this project.: As indicated above, we want to complete the WISCom Charter, which is currently in draft stage. Having already conducted the first round of consultations with the African community, we need to proceed with a second round of consultations. Once adopted, this charter will facilitate our transition from being a committee to an organisation that will serve as a hub. Activities that we envisage happening between July and February next year are as follows:; * Hiring of WISCom Staff - this person will drive the implementation of the charter; * Consultation with African Community; * Incorporation of inputs and adoption; * Meeting of WISCom members in person - we plan to meet at WikiIndaba conference to discuss implementation of Charter; * Community engagement and socialiation of the WISCom charter.

Please see the rest of the position’s specs here.

How do you intend to keep communities updated on the progress and outcomes of the project? Please add the names or usernames of these individuals responsible for updating the community: The WISCom Staff will be responsible for facilitating community conversation through Afrika Baraza.
Who will be responsible for delivering on this project and what are their roles and responsibilities?: WISCom staff will report to Bobby Shabangu, Felix Nartey and Jael Boateng on the progress of the project.

Additional information

If your activities include community discussions, what is your plan for ensuring that the conversations are productive? Provide a link to a Friendly Space Policy or UCoC that will be implemented to support these discussions.

We will be using Afrika Baraza to facilitate conversations. The plan is incorporate the current inputs, then have a session at Afrika Baraza to socialize and discuss the document further for any additional inputs then open a 2nd round of inputs then adopt the document. conforms to the Friendly Space Policy and UCoC

If your activities include the use of paid online tools, please describe what tools these are and how you intend to use them.: There's an interpretation services at Afrika Baraza which the WMF already pays for at Afrika Baraza.
Do your activities include the translation of materials, and if so, in what languages will the translation be done? Please include details of those responsible for making the translations.: Translation will be in French and Arabic, Reda and Youseff will be responsible for ensuring translating French and Arabic are up to standard. It should be noted that we are also looking to hire someone who is conversant in English, French and Arabic.
Are there any other details you would like to share? Consider providing rationale, research or community discussion outputs, and any other similar information, that will give more context on your proposed project.

Outcomes

After your activities are complete, we would like to understand the draft implementation plan for your community. You will be required to prepare a document detailing this plan around a movement strategy initiative. This report can be prepared through Meta-wiki using the Share your results button on this page. The report can be prepared in your language, and is not required to be written in English.

In this report, you will be asked to:

Provide a link to the draft implementation plan document or Wikimedia page
Describe what activities supported the development of the plan
Describe how and where you have communicated your plan to relevant communities.
Report on how your funding was spent

Your draft implementation plan document should address the following questions clearly:

What movement strategy initiative or goal are you addressing?
What activities will you be doing to address that initiative?
What do you expect will happen as a result of your activities? How do those outcomes address the movement strategy initiative?
How will you measure or evaluate your activities? What tools or methods will you use to evaluate your activities?

To create a draft implementation plan, we recommend the use of a logic model, which will help you and your team think about goals, activities, outcomes, and other factors in an organized way. Please refer the following resources to develop a logic model:

Overview of logic models on Meta-wiki
Example logic models for reference for other movement activities (such as partnerships and edit-a-thons)
Blank logic model template on Google Drive

Please confirm below that you will be able to prepare a draft implementation plan document by the end of your grant:

This looks awesome, we would like to adopt this model. We currently use RACI and tools such as ASANA. However, we would appreciate a meeting to learn more about the logic model.

Optionally, you are welcome to include other information you'd like to share around participation and representation in your activities. Please include any additional outcomes you would like to report on below:

Yes, we do have other models we are using but they are not effective because we are volunteers. We think bringing in staff will be effective to fast track tasks. Would be great to have a meeting and discuss this part further.

Budget

How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!

The requested budget and budget breakdown should be in your or recipient’s local currency. We send grant payments preferably in your local currency. In some exceptional cases (e.g. hyperinflation), we allow grant payments to be made in US dollars. If you are requesting a grant in a currency other than your local currency, please reach out to your Program Officer to discuss.

Research (time needed to review, perform analysis, or investigate any information needed to support implementation ideas or planning):
Facilitation (facilitation time including facilitator preparation, meeting facilitation time, and debriefing): In person meeting of WISCom in Johannesburg at WikiIndaba at 4-6 Oct 2024.
Documentation (document preparation time, time spent documenting of discussion, post-meeting work):
Translation (translation costs for briefs and global materials):
Coordination (coordinator work to manage or support multiple workflows to prepare for meeting):
Online tools or services (subscription services for online meeting platforms, social media promotion): R 5000, LinkedIn for advertising post.
Data (internet or mobile costs for organizers or participants to access or participate in activities):
Venue or space for meeting (costs of renting a physical meeting space):
Transportation costs (costs of supporting organizers or participants to attend the meeting):
Meals (costs related to refreshments, lunches, or other meals during in-person activities):
Other: The table below is a detailed budget with Dollar Rand exchange rate at 19 Rands as of 03 June 2024, based on oanda. Noting that if this gets approved we would like to get paid in local currency.

WISCom Budget breakdown

WISCom Budget Breakdown
Item	Description	Unit Rate ZAR	ZAR	USD
Travel - retreat
13 X Flights	12 members of WISCom to travel to Johannesburg South Africa for retreat, plus 1X WIScom employee.	18240	237 120	12 480
13 X Ground travel	13 pax Airport collection and drop-off	300	3900	205
Accomodation - Retreat
13 pax for 3 nights	13 members of WISCom - Accomodation at Raddison Blu in Sandton where retreat will be taking place - and WikiIndba will take place,	7400	96200	5063
WISCom Administration
Fiscal Sponsor	Fiscal sponsor fee for accepting and keeping the funds on behalf of WISCom - 13% of total amount.		96,894	5000
Contingency	Contingency fee - 10% of total amount.		74,534	3922
retreat	WikiIndaba - conference registration	700	9100	479
Hiring costs	Costs for hiring WISCom Staff - LinkedIn	5000	31018	1633
admin	Admin costs for registration of WISCom as an entity	10 000	10 000	526
admin	1x Laptop for staff	10 000	10 000	526
admin	Data cost for staff	500	6000	316
Salaries	1X WISCom Staff Salaries for 12 months	28 500	342000	18000
Total			916, 766 ZAR	48250 USD

TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED IN LOCAL CURRENCY:

Completing your application

Once you have completed the application, please do the following:

Change the application status from status=draft to status=proposed in the {{Probox}} template.
Contact strategy2030 wikimedia.org to confirm your submission, as well as to request any support around your application.

Endorsements

An endorsement from community members (especially from outside your community) will be part of the considerations when reviewing your application. Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!