Grants:Project/MSIG/Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda/MSIG in Africa great lakes region

statusFunded

Movement Strategy Implementation Grant for Africa great lakes region

Detailed Needs assessment in the Eastern DRC , Burundi and Rwanda commonly related to Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili languages using French and English as international languages.

targetCommunities in Eastern DRC , Burundi and Rwanda

start date15 March 2022

start year2022

end date15 August 2022

end year2022

budget (local currency)19,300,000 Frw

budget (USD)19,300 USD

grant typeGroup

grantee• RebeccaRwanda

contact(s)• jeannetterebecca@gmail.com• ndahiroderric@gmail.com

organization (if applicable)• Rwanda Wikimedia User Group

website (if applicable)• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Wikimedia_User_Group_Rwanda

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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?

- Detailed Needs Assessments of great lakes communities in terms of skills gaps and organization contributing to: 31.Global approach for local skills development . This will be achieved through collaboration and networking from the regional communities.

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

31. Global approach for local skill development - gathering data, matching peers, mentorship, recognition. Skill development is a priority for our community.
Although Rwanda community has grown since we started in 2018 as evidenced on our meta page Wikimedia_User_Group_Rwanda by the projects conducted so far (More than 10 projects) and members contributions which continue to rise, we have not yet managed to comprehensively go beyond and make needs assessment frameworks on great lakes region.
There is an assumption that certain barriers like skills gaps are keeping people from contributing in certain areas and specifically in certain languages. As Kinyarwanda,Kirundi and Kiswahili are the most spoken languages in our communities , We intend to organize ourselves and communicate regionally in order to reach a comprehensive understanding of community needs and assets through data gathering. Questions we want to answer include: what are views of our communities , what are their assets and what are gaps, which approaches to capacity building can best serve them , what is the existing people's knowledge on existing platforms.
This will be based first and foremost on an online surveys but these will be accompanied by hybrid activities(online and offline) conducted on fields engaging these communities as a strategy to get in contact and interact before moving to further initiatives towards capacity building.

Project Background

When do you intend to begin this project and when will it be completed?

We intend to start in match 2022 and go till august in 2022

Where will your project activities be happening?

project activities will mainly be based in Rwanda especially in provinces , in Burundi , in Goma and surrounding areas , in Bukavu and surrounding areas.

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 collaborate with the community in Eastern DRC and Burundi as beneficiaries , we collaborate with communities in Tanzania on Kiswahili language skills and Uganda community as mentors , we intend to engage international community beyond our region, from Wikimedia Germany to gain from their experience in best practice in conducting such a detailed skills assessment collaborating on tools designs.

What specific challenge will your project be aiming to solve? And what opportunities do you plan to take advantage of to solve the problem?

We intend to attend to the skills gap challenge through a comprehensive needs assessment of the communities in the great lakes region, as we assume there are community members who have not fully contributed because of the language barriers , we have an opportunity to be basing our conversation in our mother tongues (Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili and Kirundi) which are definitely the most spoken languages in our region and any one can understand irrespective of the level of education , we will also take advantage of English and French languages to make translations of the most needed tools in the process in order to seamlessly communicate with these communities and have access to various information and opportunities presented in Wikimedia community at broad stage . So all our tools , documents and resources starting with this proposal itself will be translated in to the four mentioned languages and this will increase the engagement of our communities and contribute to their endorsement.

Does this project aim to apply one of the examples shared in the call for grants and if so which one?

We intend to use the example provided on Needs Assessment: Example of a needs assessment for skills development grant proposal

Project Activities

The best practices and challenges experienced from the needs analysis process will be documented in details to serve as learning from experience to other communities in other initiatives
To increase the level of community engagement we will make outreach a priority to the communities of the region through their leaders of all levels, we shall make consultations in order to get views of the beneficiaries and involve them in the planning and implementation process, collaborating on all tasks by receiving feedback from them and empowering these communities with roles of responsibilities in this project
In order to contextualize the questionnaires and make sure it fits the purpose we will involve the communities in DRC, Burundi and Rwanda to discuss the objectives of the project , input from international experts will have an added value on a theoretical point of view and worldwide best practices , a validation and testing process of the questionnaire will follow on small number of different communities before the general rollout in the three countries

What specific activities will be carried out during this project? Please describe the specific activities that will be carried out during this project.

The following activities are mainly the priority for our project , we intend to develop the plan further in to the logic framework and relate it to each and every responsibility:

We will initiate collaboration and community mapping following these steps:

Starting with a basic research on contributors in this region we will identify and engage potential collaborators
Collaborate with the community leaders on best practices to engage all members on their needs to fully contribute in Wikimedia movement based on their online profile as well as conducting research on local initiatives going on so that no one is left behind, especially people living in rural areas.
Where possible visit on field the community to engage with some of key informants

We will carry out the skills assessment with the following steps:

Designing a survey of community skills: Community Capacity Map will be used for that purpose, where detailed data will be gathered in terms of skills needs assessment and potential existing skills , as an example, oral traditions which could be recorded and be used in online platforms. Surveys will be translated in Kinyarwanda ,Kirundi and Kiswahili to be able to reach the communities without language barriers.
Collecting data: The survey will be distributed as much as possible among the communities. We will announce it and collectively fill it during small community meetings, and will also conduct 1:1 interviews where we verbally collect the answers (for those who prefer it). We hope to receive diverse responses in terms of: newcomers, admins, editors, technical contributors, women contributors and other..
Defining needs: A professional analyst will be hired to look through the data, categorize it and extract the needs: Not only of our community altogether, but also of individual groups within (for example: newcomers). The needs assessment will not only show areas where training is required, but also how the training should be best conducted (e.g. with what tools and in which exact topics?). The results will be shared in a public report, and each country coordinators will draft their reports which will be gathered all together in phase 4 of the project.
Prioritizing: Once the needs have been identified, we will conduct a general meeting online with the community and a small number will be offline and a follow-up discussion agree on the priorities. The priorities will be added to our final report.
Sharing: Our final needs and priorities will be not only shared on a local level, but also within a broader “global mapping” to help represent our region’s specific needs among the rest of the Wikimedia communities.

How do you intend to keep communities updated on the progress and outcomes of the project?

We will actively use the social media , and other means of communication to make sure the projects participants can continue to receive updates , opportunities and other resources they need as an example the needed data to access seamlessly the Wikimedia platforms all over the world will be provided.

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

Using social media tools and other collaborative tools , Communities in Burundi will be engaged through the Wikimedia User Group Burundi , User community in DRC with specific focus on communities in Goma , Bukavu and surrounding areas speaking Kiswahili will be engaged through Democratic_Republic_of_Congo_User_Group , Provinces specific contact persons in Rwanda will be identified and engaged through Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda.

Who will be responsible for delivering on this project and what are their roles and responsibilities?
Roles and responsibilities

International experts : 2 persons , We will outsource out of the region , for international expertise in questionnaire set up and overall research on needs assessment frameworks and best practices in conducting projects of that magnitude , for this we have contacted Wikimedia Germany for assistance
Regional experts : 2 people, We will outsource in our Eastern Africa region , for matters of organization and Kiswahili languages so that our needs assessment are conducted referring to the standards in terms of methodology , for this we have contacted Wikimedia Tanzania and Wikimedia Uganda for assistance
User communities in the region (DRC Two coordinators , Burundi two coordinators and Rwanda 4 coordinators ), as beneficiaries of these needs assessments , Rwanda community User Group are the main actors and we will fully participate in all the activities being organizing our communities , conducting fields works and organizing the workshops as well as disseminating information for online activities and translating used materials in a convenient languages for our members

On the management of the project we intend to compose a team of 7 people from Rwanda and the region
- Project coordinator: Nyinawumuntu Jeannette, RebeccaRwanda , Rwanda
- Research Team coordinator: Ndahiro Derrick, Ndahiro derrick , Rwanda
- Country coordinator: Abel Mbura , BamLifa, DRC
- Country coordinator: Ferdinand Irankunda , Ferdinand IF99 , Burundi
- Monitoring and Evaluation Officer: Boris Bahire, Mrbobax, Rwanda
- Secretary and communication officer: Nyirahabihirwe Clementine, Cnyirahabihirwe123, Rwanda
- Advisor: Antony Mutaganvu , Jadnapac , Tanzania

The project will consist of 4 phases namely :
Phase 1: The needs assessment research preparation , one and half months
Phase 2 : The needs assessment online and field activities, one month
Phase 3 : Needs Prioritizing and draft implementation plan, one and half months
Phase 4 : Validation and dissemination of findings , one month

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 follow the friendly space policy to guide us in these discussions.

If your activities include in-person events or activities, you will need to complete the steps outlined in the Risk Assessment protocol. Please provide a link to your completed copy of the risk assessment tool.

We will follow these guidelines and we will do a gathering of people with a number less than 25 people in order to be compliant with the Covid-19 guidelines, bigger gathering will be organized online

If your activities include the use of paid online tools, please describe what tools these are and how you intend to use them.

We will use specialized apps and other means to transmit the questionnaires for the online survey,

We intend also to support in acquisition of data for internet.

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.

Translations of all activities will be in the four languages : Kinyarwanda , Kirundi and Swahili , French and English , we will hire some of the experts in these translations but we will also encourage the communities to participate in the translations as way of more engagement in the activities.

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:

We here confirm that we will prepare a draft implementation plan document by the end of our grant where we will use the logic model to specify the goals , activities and outcomes to have a lasting impact in our communities

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!

Phase 1	Item	Number	Unit Price	Total (USD)	Explanations	Comment on implementation
	International experts	1	1,000	1000	We will outsource out of the region , for international expertise in questionnaire set up and overall research on needs assessment frameworks as well as on drafting the implentation plan and best practices in conducting projects of that magnitude , we will facilitate based on working hours duration	In the first phase , they will facilitate the research tools development
	Regional experts	1	1,000	1,000	We will outsource in our Eastern Africa region , for matters of project coordination and Kiswahili languages so that our needs assessment are conducted referring to the standards in terms of methodology as well as support in the implementation plan drafting , we will facilitate in the travel and accommodation for field works	In the first phase , they will facilitate the research translations expertise
	Coordination, M&E, reporting	1	600	600	the coordination for the preparation field works , evaluation and monitoring of activities as well as regular reporting will be needed through out all the project phases and the local transport and communication will be catered for in the 4 phases of the project including the phase of the drafting of implementation plan	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Documentation and translation	1	600	600	in order to make the communication in the needs assessment smooth we will translate in the 4 languages all materials needed in the process and we will hire professionals and encourage members to participate and get data refund compensation	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Online tools and services	2	300	600	we will use third party tools and apps to conduct the needs assessment online and offline as well , these will also be needed in the drafting of the implementation plan	these tasks will be in the first and second phases
	Internet data	20	10	200	Data : internet data costs for organizers and participants will be refunded and these will be a priority in order to get access to quality responses from various parts in the remote regions , on every field work conducted , there will be an associated online activities in the communities around , we intend to support up to 200 people on internet data costs	This task will be mostly south for in the 2nd phase and 3rd phase of defining needs and priotizing
	Sub Total Phase 1			4,000
Phase 2	Item	Number	Unit Price	Total (USD)	Explanations	Comment on implementation
	Coordination, M&E, reporting	1	600	600	We will start with the identification of the data collectors and train tehm , the coordination for the preparation field works , evaluation and monitoring of activities as well as regular reporting will be needed through out all the project phases and the local transport and communication will be catered for in the 4 phases of the project including the phase of the drafting of implementation plan	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Documentation and translation	1	600	600	We will start with the questionnaire design , in order to make the communication in the needs assessment smooth we will translate in the 4 languages all materials needed in the process and we will hire professionals and encourage members to participate and get data refund compensation	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Online tools and services	2	300	600	Digitilization of the questionnaire, we will use third party tools and apps to conduct the needs assessment online and offline as well , these will also be needed in the drafting of the implementation plan	these tasks will be in the first and second phases
	Field activities in the great lakes region	5	500	2,500	We will conduct field works where 2 people from organizing team will be accompanied with 3 key informants from the local communities in order to conduct in person interviews and other offline needs assessment activities in three cities : Bujumbura , Goma and Bukavu . The communication , transport and accommodation will be catered for.	This task will be in the 2nd phase
	FIeld activities in the provinces	6	400	2,400	In Rwanda field activities will be conducted in the 4 provinces and they will involve 2 organizers and 4 key informants from local communities in order to conduct in person interviews and other offline needs assessment activities in Eastern , Western Northern and southern provinces . The communication , transport and accommodation will be catered for.	This task will be in the 2nd phase
	Internet data	140	10	1,400	Data : internet data costs for organizers and participants will be refunded and these will be a priority in order to get access to quality responses from various parts in the remote regions , on every field work conducted , there will be an associated online activities in the communities around , we intend to support up to 200 people on internet data costs	This task will be in the 2nd phase and 3rd phase of defining needs and priotizing
	Sub Total Phase 2			8,100
Phase 3	Item	Number	Unit Price	Total (USD)	Explanations	Comment on implementation
	International experts	1	1,000	1000	We will outsource out of the region , for international expertise in questionnaire set up and overall research on needs assessment frameworks as well as on drafting the implentation plan and best practices in conducting projects of that magnitude , we will facilitate in the international travel and accommodation	In the third phase , they will facilitate in the drafting of implementation plan
	Regional experts	1	1,000	1,000	We will outsource in our Eastern Africa region , for matters of project coordination and Kiswahili languages so that our needs assessment are conducted referring to the standards in terms of methodology as well as support in the implementation plan drafting , we will facilitate in the travel and accommodation for field works	In the first phase , they will facilitate the research translations expertise and draft implementation plan
	Coordination, M&E, reporting	1	600	600	Data analysis and interpretation , the coordination for the preparation field works , evaluation and monitoring of activities as well as regular reporting will be needed through out all the project phases and the local transport and communication will be catered for in the 4 phases of the project including the phase of the drafting of implementation plan	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Documentation and translation	1	600	600	in order to make the communication in the needs assessment smooth we will translate in the 4 languages all materials needed in the process and we will hire professionals and encourage members to participate and get data refund compensation	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Internet data	20	10	200	Data : internet data costs for organizers and participants will be refunded and these will be a priority in order to get access to quality responses from various parts in the remote regions , on every field work conducted , there will be an associated online activities in the communities around , we intend to support up to 200 people on internet data costs	This task will be in the 2nd phase and 3rd phase of defining needs and priotizing
	Sub Total Phase 3			3,400
Phase 4	Item	Number	Unit Price	Total (USD)	Explanations	Comment on implementation
	Coordination, M&E, reporting	1	600	600	the coordination for the preparation field works , evaluation and monitoring of activities as well as regular reporting will be needed through out all the project phases and the local transport and communication will be catered for in the 4 phases of the project including the phase of the drafting of implementation plan	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Documentation and translation	1	600	600	in order to make the communication in the needs assessment smooth we will translate in the 4 languages all materials needed in the process and we will hire professionals and encourage members to participate and get data refund compensation	these tasks will be in all the 4 phases
	Internet data	20	10	200	Data : internet data costs for organizers and participants will be refunded and these will be a priority in order to get access to quality responses from various parts in the remote regions , on every field work conducted , there will be an associated online activities in the communities around , we intend to support up to 200 people on internet data costs	This task will be in the 2nd phase and 3rd phase of defining needs and priotizing
	Overall validation meeting	1	2,000	2,000	An overall summit will be organized online , from Kigali , with a physical presence of small number of actors in the project on site to share the outcome of the project , and widely communicate the findings , we will cover the venue 200 USD , refreshment 300 USD , meeting facilitation and translations 500 USD and refund data for participants 1,000 USD.	This task will be in the 4th phase of drafting the implementation plan and dissemination
	Other unforseen expenses	1	400	400	To cover unforeseen expenses
	Sub Total Phase 4			3,800
	Grand Total			19,300

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!

Nikki Zeuner (WMDE)
Strong support, As the founder of the community of Burundi I am very happy of this research and Assessment so that our communities continue to evolve. Burundi we need to collaborate with other communities in the regions such as Rwanda and the DRC, and others communities. I strongly support this project because, in Burundi this will allow us to know what we can improve, we are happy to work with the Rwandan community and DRC which has experience in wikimedia projects. --Ferdinand IF99 (talk) 08:35, 7 February 2022 (UTC) (Wikimedia community user group BURUNDI)
Gilbert Ndihokubwayo (Wikimedia community user group Burundi)
Support Skills development is one of the most important strategy recommendations especially for African communities, to ensure all of our communities grow equitably. This project is an extra step to help us reach this goal. --Kateregga1 (talk) 06:16, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Strong support, I endorse This project because it will increase involvement of Great Lakes regional communities to the Wikimedia vision of 2030 and promotion of digital rights, It will bring big good impact in growth of them --Proyezu (talk) 21:17, 6 February 2022
Strong support I support this project because it will help Rwandan community members to share experiences with the neighbor in the great lakes and identify needs for our Regional skills development 19:40, 6 February 2022 (UTC) --Germain92 (talk) a member in Rwanda community user Group
Strong support I strongly support this project because it will increase the level of community engagement, it will set out all priorities of DRC, Burundi and Rwanda communities, this will lead to the positive impact in different project implimentation in these communities. Cnyirahabihirwe123 (talk) 06:38, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
Strong support I strongly support this project and believe that it will lead to a collective efforts and helpful to our communities to identify our needs Mrbobax (talk) 19:14, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
Strong support This project will not only help in identifying the needs of local communities,but also strengthening the partnerships btn member communities.Ndahiro derrick (talk) 06:58, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
As one of the emerging communities, it's good to have local skills development with a global focus that looks at the future growth and capacity of the members within the User group, and the region being involved in Movement Strategy. Douglaseru (talk) 22:59, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
Strong support I strong support this project because it promotes the sharing of knowledge and experience (which can be considered as capacity building for both) between the wiki communities of large lake countries.VALENTIN NVJ (talk) 20:37, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
Strong support As one of those who have worked so much in the African community, I know how important community engagement is. We are facing real issues with this. This research project will help better understand how to help the community to stay engaged. BamLifa (talk) 13:32, 14 February 2022 (UTC)
Strong support :I strongly endorse this project as I see it will be fruitful in understanding the needs of the communities especially when it comes to African Languages perspectives, Its a useful project that will help to understand the existing gaps in both capacity building and language. Moreover, it will partly help to understand the needs around thematic collaboration within EA region towards implementation of EARTH. We (From Wikimedia Tanzania) will be happy to help in matters relating to Swahili Langauage and Swahili Wikipedia as it might be needed.Jadnapac (talk) 14:02, 14 February 2022 (UTC)