Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Dagbani Wikimedians User Group 2024 Annual Programs: Difference between revisions

Dear Dagbani Wikimedians User Group:

Thank you very much for your proposal, describing your activities and projects in support of the Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia movement. The Regional Funds Committee has initially reviewed the proposal, and wishes to offer some initial feedback and questions for your review.

They appreciate that you are progressing in your approach to increase the representation of the Mabia languages in the Wikimedia movement. They see strengths in your proposal with regards to targeting and training a diverse community, as well as focusing on recruiting new contributors from outside of the Wikimedia movement. After reviewing your application, please find the feedback - comments and questions below for your response.

It would be supportive of the Committee’s understanding of your plans if you’d be so kind as to elaborate on our following specific few questions:

Thank you for reviewing our grant proposal. Please see below our responses to the feedback:

Understanding growth from previous year.

• May you please clarify how the strategies, tactics and methodologies outlined in this proposal are different from the previous grant received the year before? The requested budget is a 44% increase from the previous year and they would like to better understand the corresponding growth and change expected that is different from the year before.

Thank you for the observation. Our strategies, tactics, and methodologies outlined in this proposal remained the same, except that we have continually improved our programs and activities from our previous grants. Most of our programs in the past were largely offline, and we ran editathon contests. We have balanced this component to not only cut costs but also increase community participation. It is important to also note that the additional contractor role, increased volunteer-based work, and the onboarding of our newly approved language Wikipedia projects such as Dagaare and Kusaal have also contributed to an increase in budget from the previous grant. Also, the depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi against the USD and the current inflation rate have contributed to the budget increase. We have carefully reviewed the entire proposal and adjusted the total budget by reducing the number of anticipated participants for each community to reduce costs associated with food and beverages and removing data allowance items for each program by creating a single item to include all costs associated with data allowance for the entire project duration. Other programs, such as Wiki Loves Living Heritage and Art+Feminsm have now been moved online. Specific items for 'Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom' have been adjusted to reduce cost. This has significantly reduced the 44% budget increment from the previous grant to 20.6%.

• Your strategic plan clearly outlines areas of focus, with clear goals, objectives and activities. The committee would like to also understand what ""outcomes"" you envision from each of these areas.

The Strategic plan document has been updated for clarity on goals, objectives, and outcomes for each program outlined in this strategy document

• Relatedly, you mention community engagement as a key area for growth. Could you expand on how the community engagement tactics and activities will contribute to Dagbani community growth?

Community engagement plays a vital role in the growth and sustainability of the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group. Community engagement serves as a catalyst for increased participation within the community. Through activities such as meetups, workshops, and online discussions, community members are encouraged to contribute regularly, enriching the content on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Again, it promotes diversity by welcoming individuals from different backgrounds and experiences. This diversity fosters a more inclusive environment where different perspectives contribute to the sustainability of our activities. Community engagement facilitates knowledge sharing among members. Experienced contributors can offer guidance and support to newcomers through our 'Mentor-mentee' and the ‘article of the week’ programs. This is not only to help in skill development but also to promote a culture of continuous learning within the community. It also plays a pivotal role in recruiting and retaining new editors. It provides the opportunity for community members to be more involved in our activities, participate in decision-making, and‌ to recognize the contribution of old and active members. This has been a conscious effort to engage both old and new volunteers to increase volunteer retention.

Metrics.

• The committee wanted to better understand the evolution of target metrics for Wikipedia from the previous year. For example, from 500 Wikipedia articles created and improved in 2023 to 6,000 in 2024. May you explain what this projection is based on? Conversely, the committee sees a decrease in metrics for Wikidata from 10,000 entries from last year to 8,000. They’d appreciate understanding the rationale for these changes based on your strategy and activities.

Thank you for the observation. The projection of the Wikipedia article increase from 500 last year to 6,000 this year is based on our previous programs against our current proposed projects. Last year, we exceeded our target for Wikipedia article creation by more than 100%: the Parliament of Ghana edit-a-thon contest alone contributed 1,375 articles, thus 275 biographies of Ghanaian parliamentarians on five language Wikipedia projects (Dagbani, Gurene, Dagaare, Kusaal and Moore).

In addition to that, each language project created at least 200 Wikipedia articles, totaling 1,000 articles (200 by 5) as part of the Wiki World Intangible Cultural Heritage contest organized by the Wiki World Intangible User Group. Also, our community microgrant program, which is focused on specialized initiatives by the language communities, helped us create at least 1000 articles from campaigns such as 'Feminism and Folklore Campaign 2023, Documenting Gurene names and communities on Wikipedia and Wikidata, Digitizing Africa in Gurene Language, Ghana Constituency profiles, My Kusaal Achiever, and more. Other initiatives organized by our Wikipedia clubs and hubs, such as TACE and BACE Wiki Hubs, KNUST, and HO Technical university Wiki Club, have significantly contributed to the growth of our Wikipedia projects. Contributions to Dagbani Wikipedia alone have increased from 7,000 in 2023 to 9,288 including contributions from random editors. Based on these analyses, initiatives, and the number of editors who have joined the various communities, we foresee that we will be able to hit that target.

In the case of Wikidata, we reduced the number of Wikidata-related activities in the current program compared to last year’s programs, which included the translations of Wikidata properties, labels, and descriptions as part of our Wikidata lexicographical data campaign.

• How is the readership of the five languages you have developed Wikipedia languages for?

To clarify, the creation of these Wikipedia platforms is a conscious effort by speakers to contribute towards the preservation of these languages on the internet. Feedback from the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha indicates that more users have identified Dagbani Wikipedia as an invaluable resource for students at different levels, and comments from the Dagbani Teachers Association revealed that more parents and teachers have resorted to using the Dagbani Wikipedia to access information.

Again, the creation of these Wikipedias has become a catalyst for many great changes in Ghana. To mention a few, Ghanaian languages are mandatory

for every Ghanaian child but due to limited resources, the Government of Ghana could only support 10 out of the 82 languages in Ghana. The Gurene language has now been adopted as a government-sponsored language for basic schools which means that in jurisdictions where the language is spoken, teachers who study the language at the university (the majority of whom are our community members) are posted to teach students in such schools.

Furthermore, the community has discovered that there is a growing number of readers of the Dagbani Wikipedia from the Diaspora, specifically North America and Europe. This means native speakers born outside the country are using Wikipedia to teach their children. Therefore, focusing on creating more awareness about these invaluable online resources will have a greater impact on the preservation and revitalization of these languages, bridging the digital divide and also laying the foundation for the Mabia languages to thrive on the internet. Beyond leadership, the community is working to integrate these languages on the internet on digital application platforms such as Google and the Natural Language Processing (NLP) Project. For example, the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group, in collaboration with Google Ghana and NLP Ghana last year, collaborated to include the Dagbani language on the Khaya Application for automatic speech and text translation using Wikimedia Commons and Dagbani Wikipedia content, respectively. More about this collaboration is published in this paper. Also, the Dagbani Wikipedia is also a resource pack for the ‘Tiballi’ mobile app that is currently being developed to help Nyankpala farmers understand how climate impacts their crop production, and the goal is to provide audio voice play upon farmers' queries. Since Wikipedia and the Wikipedia API are open source, we are confident that a lot can be done in the dark right now using the resources we create, and time will bring it to the limelight. Finally, we are excited to share that the very first university in the five northern regions of Ghana, University for Development Studies, a development-oriented university, has finally accepted for students to offer Dagbani language at the undergraduate level after long stakeholder engagement and, among many other reasons, because of the existence of Dagbani Wikipedia, a resource bank for both students and teachers. Kusaal language is in the pipeline for next year to be studied by students at the same university. These are great achievements we hold dear, and we are grateful to the WMF for providing us with resources and a platform to continue to shape the educational and geopolitical landscape of our countries and regions. See below, metrics of the total monthly visits to the currently approved language Wikipedia projects.

Dagbani Wikipedia : Wikimedia Statistics - Dagbani Wikipedia - Total page views | Wikiscan

Gurene Wikipedia : Wikimedia Statistics - Frafra Wikipedia - Total page views | Wikiscan

Dagaare Wikipedia : Wikimedia Statistics - Dagaare Wikipedia - Total page views | Wikiscan

• How have you been measuring the progress of your work over the last year? Do you use an Outreach Dashboard?

We have been measuring the progress of our work using the Outreach Dashboard. We use it to track all projects that have been implemented by all our language communities. See the DWUG 2023 Annual Programs Overview — Programs & Events Dashboard (outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org)

Understanding Dagbani Saha.

• The committee wanted to learn more about how Dagbani Saha has evolved from the previous year. May you share what new material you plan on scripting for this year’s program and how it is building on the previous year?

The Dagbbani Wikipedia Saha has been pivotal in enhancing the representation of the Dagbani language and culture on digital platforms. This year, we are eager to build upon the success of the previous year. This year, we're scripting new materials that will include:

-Interactive session: Leveraging the feedback from last year, we will introduce more interactive segments to engage viewers and also encourage participation. -Enhanced content: Focusing on the quality and diversity of the content, we will produce video materials that cover a broader range of topics within the Dagbani culture and language.

Expert collaboration: Collaborating with scholars and experts to provide deeper insights and enrich the educational value of our content

.

• You plan on investing nearly 2,000 USD on this partnership, it would be great to better understand how this investment will contribute to what has already been developed in the previous year.

This will be used to amplify our efforts from the previous year in the following ways ;

Production quality: A significant portion will be invested in improving the production quality of our video content to make it more appealing and professional. -Outreach expansion: We aim to expand our reach beyond the current audience by utilizing various media channels and social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. -Resource development: The funds will also help us develop new resources, including advanced training modules and editing tools.

We are confident that this investment will significantly contribute to the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha program, making it a cornerstone in preserving the Dagbani language and promoting its use on a global scale. Season 3 of the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha has been completed and will begin airing on Sagani TV from May 19 2024 .

Understanding focus on parliamentary officials.

• The committee wanted to learn more about why there is a strong focus on parliamentary officials, because this raises several concerns such as: (1) The (Parliament of Ghana) is 275 seats only, most articles about these members are stubs and short, does that deserve a high costly competition? (2) This is the same activity from last year, and you mention in the Mid- Learning Conversations that you struggled with partnering with the parliament of Ghana for the Wikibase project.

The committee is curious to understand why the user group is choosing the same activity, and why not consider expanding to other categories to allow for more varied interests and consequently a greater pool of contributors? Also, is there a rationale for why the approach for documenting parliamentary officials is a competition and not an editing workshop? And will the competition be held in one language or all five languages?

The Parliament of Ghana contest series is not only focused on the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana. It is an annual program which is focused on creating and updating the biographies of the parliamentarians in the 4th Republic, that is, from 1992 to date (1st to 8th parliament of the 4th Republic). Every four years, the parliament of Ghana organizes an election to elect a president and the members of the parliament, Some of the parliamentarians are removed and replaced every four years. The 1st Parliament of the 4th Republic are composed of parliamentarians who were elected to serve from 1992 to 1996 and the 8th Parliament was elected to serve from 2020 until 2024. The parliament of Ghana has transformed from the 1st parliament of the 1st republic to the 8th parliament of the 4th republic and selecting this niche was purposeful since most of these parliaments have been worked on by the Ghanaian community The English Wikipedia gives us rich articles for translation and ready-to-use references. For the record, we are not duplicating the parliament. So far, we have run contests for the following 2 parliaments for all five languages and the last contest will be the 9th parliament of the fourth republic after the December 2024 election later this year.

Please note that the Parliament of Ghana contest series and the Wikibase for Parliament of Ghana are two separate programs. The Parliament of Ghana contest is the 3rd edition of our annual competition to create and improve biographies of parliamentarians for the various parliamentary groups of the 4th republic in Ghana. The Wikibase for the Parliament of Ghana, on the other hand, is a Wikibase project we piloted in collaboration with Wikimedia Germany. Yes, I did mention the initial struggles we encountered at the early stages of our engagement with the parliament of Ghana. To clarify, there are 2 different projects from our previous grants.

See the meta page for both contests:

• 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana
• 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana

Wikifunctions and Lexeme.

• The committee also has the same question about Wikifunctions and Lexemes, it is unclear whether the activity will be held in just one language or across all five languages. And how many workshops do you plan on holding for these projects?

The activities will encompass all five languages for the creation of lexemes. We plan to conduct five workshops, one for each language community.

The Wikifunctions on the other hand, will be implemented by the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group as one of the seed languages selected for the pilot of Abstract Wikipedia. Dagbani is currently the African language with the highest number of Lexemes created on Wikidata See below:

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Lexicographical_data/Statistics/Count_of_lexemes_by_language

Dagbani is one of the African languages I'm actively encouraging to implement Wikidata and Lexicographical data into their programming. It's exciting to see the community's interest in this endeavor. However, there's a concerning trend within the community where skills development in this area seems to have plateaued over the past years. Despite the initial enthusiasm, there hasn't been much progress in advancing the skill levels of community members and their trainers. There seems to be little interest in advancing beyond the basics.

Currently, it appears that there is more focused on aiming to meet metrics rather than quality. They continue to create problematic Lexemes that burden the Wikidata community, causing annoyance and adding unnecessary workload for other editors. Thousands and thousands of these Lexemes are either useless, requiring extensive cleanup, or in need of complete remodeling. Despite numerous complaints and requests to address this issue through private and public outreach, there has been no improvement.

Therefore, I would advise against the creation of additional lexemes at this time. Instead, I encourage the community to:

(1) Prioritize investing in additional training to better understand the Lexicographical data namespace.
(2) Clean up the thousands of problematic Lexemes to reduce the burden on fellow editors and ensure that the Lexemes created are actually useful.

I've listed just a few of the maintenance tasks here, which has already been shared with on various platforms, along with some documentation which could be expanded on. I'm happy to draw up a plan to help editors improve their skills and guide the community in fixing these wrong Lexemes in the coming fiscal year.

-Mohammed Abdulai (WMDE) (talk) 23:20, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

As part of this effort, the Dagbani Wikimedians user group will collaborate with the students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Wiki Club to organize training sessions on Wikifunctions.

The mention of Abstract Wikipedia caught my attention, as its precursor, WikiFunctions, is still under development. I'm curious whether the goal here is to develop new WikiFunctions or simply to translate the titles and descriptions of existing WikiFunctions. Considering the current capacity and state of the community, focusing on the latter might be a more realistically achievable objective. Combining this effort with the separately proposed Translatewiki.net project seems more efficient. —M@sssly ^✉ 23:36, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

Budget-related concerns

• Given the large increase from the previous year, the committee recommends that you find ways to cut expenses.

We reviewed the budget and adjusted some items to reduce the total budget. The Number of anticipated participants for our in-person activities has significantly been reduced to cut costs. We have also moved some‌ of the in-person workshops online to further reduce the overall cost associated with food and beverages. However, It is important we share that some of our communities still struggle with stable internet connectivity and power outages and prefer to in-person events for effective participation during training. As we continue to explore both options, we have realized that the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha has helped us train more volunteers beyond in-person events, as we neither provide food and beverages for viewers nor provide data allowance. All they need to do is sit behind their TV sets and follow the training. Additionally, the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom budget has also been adjusted. We have decided to use our internal communication channels to promote the event. The number of anticipated participants, the number of proposed activities, and the cost associated with food, beverages, and‌ promotional materials has significantly been reduced. This means our current proposed budget has increased by 20.6%, taking into consideration the number of proposed activities, programs and the approval of the Dagaare and Kusaal Wikipedias. The 20.6% increase in the budget is also influenced by the steady growth of our communities and the quest to recruit more volunteers, retain existing ones, and support more volunteers and communities to contribute more to our projects.

• They also have more specific questions about the following items for your elaboration: ** May you please share why you state that there are 2 full time staff members, although the listed amount of hours for these staff members is 60 hours per month?

Thank you for pointing this out to us. We recognize the oversight of the hourly rate calculation and have rectified the challenge. Kindly refer to the staffing sheet in the budget for details. The 2 full-time staff members remain unchanged from our previous grants, even though we have added 1 contractor (The finance officer) based on our current scope of activities and the growth of the user group.

• Regarding staff expenses, the committee noticed that they make up approximately 62% of the total budget. They recommend lowering this amount as this contribution is quite high.

Again, the overall staffing budget has been adjusted to reflect the committee’s recommendation, staff expenses have been reduced to 29.7% of the total budget, indicating a substantial decrease from the stated 62% (which we are very confident was not calculated properly or were inflated as a result of a wrong formula, and the budget is still available for a recalculation by the committee). Please note that the 29.7% staff expense includes the finance officer role not originally captured in our previous grant.

• There appears to be relatively high salaries given the stated hourly rate per month for some staff roles. May you please share the reason for this?

We appreciate your assessment of the hourly rate, and total budget dedicated to staffing. We have also identified the miscalculation of the hourly rate against the total number of working hours for staff and have fixed that. For example, the executive director role previously captured as USD 18/hr for 60hrs /month has now been updated to reflect USD 10/hr for 120hrs/month. This USD 120 increment includes 13.5% of the employee pension contribution required by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), employee tax revenue, and inflation protection. This case scenario is the same for the project manager who oversees the activities of the user group. Please note that these services are only applicable to full-time employees.

• Could you please elaborate on the expense on data allowance for every activity and why they are very high?

Considering the recommendation that the total budget be reduced, we have decided to remove all data allowance components in all our proposed activities. However, we have carefully calculated the anticipated data cost for the entire project duration in item 8 on the operational cost sheet in the budget. Again, we have reviewed and adjusted the number of anticipated participants for each activity to further cut cost on data allowance.

Additionally, the Dagbani Wikipedia Saha is one program that does not require internet data for participants and viewers are only required to follow our training programs on TV from the comfort of their homes.

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group (five language communities) are largely students (Knust Wiki Hub, BACE Wiki Hub, TACE Wiki hub, Ho Wiki Hub and other universities we work with) who have enough time to edit because they have the skills now but lack Internet data to sustain their edits. We usually offer this data support to have a balanced community of teachers and students. It's daisy, but that's the sad reality we face.

• Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom. The committee would like to learn more on the implementation of Reading Wikipedia in Classroom? Who are the core team members? Could you use the previously developed training materials and resources to reduce expenses? Moreover, could you partner with other organizations to reduce the communication and outreach expenses for this project?

First of all, we have 2 certified trainers for the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program who led the previous program. These two certified trainers also held train-the-trainers sessions for some team members. Yes, we have adapted and printed the existing Reading Wikipedia in the classroom online training resources to cut costs. Additionally, we have removed the component of the communication expert and have decided to utilize our internal communication channel to further reduce costs associated with communication and campaigns. See more about the impact of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom from the previous grant: [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmp9kClYNuI&t=103s

• Food and beverage. From your budget, it appears that food and beverage takes up a large portion of funding from the program activities. Is there a way for you to reduce this cost?

To further cut costs on food and beverages, we have reduced the number of anticipated participants for our offline events. This will help us to significantly reduce our expenditure on food and beverages by 50% during offline events. Also, we have adjusted our A+F to only include virtual participants, and we plan on hosting Wikifunctions and Lexemes, translatewiki.net as an online initiative, which might reduce expenses on food and beverages.

Microgrants project.

• May you share more about the micro grants project? The outcome appears unclear and the committee would like to learn more about what is the expected outcome from this project by next year.

The micro-grants is a dedicated funding program that is focused on supporting individuals and sub community projects within the User Group. These projects include, but are not limited to, specialized initiatives by individual volunteers and community-specific projects that may not be initially captured in our annual programs. Also, our community microgrant program, which focuses on specialized initiatives by the language communities, has helped us create at least 1000 articles from campaigns such as 'Feminism and Folklore Campaign 2023', 'Documenting Gurene names and communities on Wikipedia and Wikidata', 'Digitizing Africa in Gurene Language, Ghana Constituency profiles', 'My Kusaal Achiever', and more.

The User Group does not only focus on the affiliate's programs. Through the micro-funding program, we have supported our communities and Wikipedia clubs and hubs to implement specialized initiatives that are specific to their volunteer needs. Outside of the community-specific projects, the program is also open to all eligible and experienced volunteers who are interested in organizing their own activities, such as local photo walks, to contribute to international photography contests, editathons, meetups, and editathon campaigns. Teachers, students, and old editors in good standing with the Wikimedia Foundation are especially encouraged to apply.

A list of all specialized activities funded by the micro-funding program can be found on this page.

Transparency and accountability As we continue to learn and explore the various ways we can make the micro grant funding program more effective, we have updated the requirement and the application process to make easier for volunteers to apply.

The review committee is made up of one representative from each language community.

• Offline activities. The committee are curious to understand why all activities are offline. Why have you not been able to capitalize on online activities and presence?

Thanks again for the recommendation. Even though we have adjusted the proposal to include more online activities, we see the need to include offline activities, as some of our online activities rarely help certain community initiatives. The current challenges in Ghana related to intermittent power outages, high cost of internet data, and poor internet connectivity issues have had an adverse effect on some of our activities.

• How do you balance centralization and decentralization especially with individual volunteers wanting to contribute to the projects but through other pathways separate to the affiliate?

As a community, we understand the need to be more inclusive and truly diverse, and the need to empower individual volunteers to implement initiatives beyond the scope of our work. We strive to balance centralization and decentralization, aiming for a mix that maximizes our strengths. Empowering volunteers to pursue projects aligned with our organizational goals while allowing for autonomy and creativity can help strike the right balance between centralization and decentralization.

As a multi-lingual community group, we work to support 5 mutually intelligible languages spoken across different regions in northern Ghana. This means our community on its own is truly diverse.

Again, the user group does not only focus on the affiliate's programs, we have supported several individuals and non-affiliate volunteers to pilot their own initiatives by fiscally sponsoring their rapid grant applications. For example, last year, we brought together all the Ghanaian non wikimedia communities to host a 2-day mini language meetup implemented by volunteers outside the affiliates and funded through the rapid grant program. The meetup did not only create a shared collaboration among the various communities in Ghana, but it also equipped and empowered participants with the requisite skills necessary to contribute beyond the affiliate's activities.

References:

1. https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/05/31/the-ghanaian-wikimedia-language-communities-join-hands-to-host-a-language-mini-conference-in-ghana/
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ghanaian_Wikimedia_Languages_Meetup/Post_Event
3. https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2023/05/10/wikimedian-meet-up-to-celebrate-ghanas-linguistic-diversity/

• Advisory board. Could you share more about who is on the advisory board of the Dagbani user group and their engagement?

We wish to share that we are currently restructuring our advisory and will soon publish updates once we conclude the onboarding process. The process involves engagement with the current members to learn about‌ our shared interest, goals and the need to continue working together to achieve the community core objectives. We recognized the need to restructure the board to be more inclusive and diverse so that all newly onboarded language communities have representation on the advisory board, as some members are less active because of distance and time. This process requires that each language community nominate at least 2 proposed board members who meet the eligibility criteria, taking into consideration the need to address challenges related to gender and cultural representation‌. The community will then vote to decide who represents their language group based on their knowledge and expertise.

Beyond language representation, we also take into consideration their level of interest in supporting the community in a volunteer capacity.

The second part of the restructuring process will help us elect a new board chair and a board secretary to lead the advisory.

The current advisory members’ list here will be updated in the coming days with both new and returning members who have agreed to serve on the advisory board. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dagbani_Wikimedians_User_Group/People

For transparency: Despite being listed as a current board member, I have never been contacted for advisory board activities, nor have I ever met with any other board members or been involved in any board discussions. (P.S. The Wiki page listing the board members has been up since December 2021). In fact, when I eventually took the initiative and reached out to enquire, I was informed in a recording that organizational matters were not my concern.

Therefore, I am unaware of any board restructuring process, and the statement about an ongoing "engagement with [the current] board members to learn about shared interests, goals, and the need to continue working together to achieve the community core objectives" is false. -—M@sssly ^✉ 23:43, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

Key Roles and new Directions

Members of our advisory board will provide wise counsel regarding Wikimedia and the organizational structure. They will provide insight, expert guidance, and mentorship to the leadership of the organization.

The advisory board will provide new strategic advice and expertise the community will need to reach both our long and short-term goals. In all situations, they will be recognized as our trusted advisors. We will use their skills to guide the leadership in the right direction.

Regarding the schedule for our review process, please complete your review and responses to committee feedback by the 1st of May 2024. After this time, the Regional Committee will begin a final review of the proposal to make a formal decision.

Noted

Thanks again for your work on the proposal and for supporting our review. On behalf of the Regional Committee, Azogbonon (talk) 20:33, 12 April 2024 (UTC) Reply

Thank you for reviewing our proposal and providing useful feedback. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Shahadusadik (talk) 01:31, 2 May 2024 (UTC) Reply

Dear Dagbani Wikimedians User Group,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The MEA Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed, discussed and deliberated upon your application and made the decision to fund you in Local Currency Equivalent of 50,000 USD for the grant period of 1st July 2024 to 30th June 2025.

Here are a few points to note on the decision:

• We see a critical need for the organization to focus and prioritize strengthening it’s governance structures that will then inform;
  • Leadership development and strengthening of volunteer leaders' roles in the implementation of strategic programs in the community. This will also support community engagement of the Dagbani community and its sister language communities ensuring there is a healthy balance in centralization and decentralization at the core of it being healthy power sharing. We see an opportunity for you to learn from groups like Wikimedia UG Morocco, Wikimedia UG Cote d’Ivoire and Wikimedia South Africa.
  • We believe a review of the governance structures will also enable the user group and organization to strengthen its programming including the micro-granting program
  • We would like the organization to review the current resourcing of roles ensuring there is equity and that allocation is commensurate with scope of the roles.
  • As part of the funding, we are asking the organization to conduct an audit to support them in strengthening their financial governance and this will be useful in building of the organization’s health.
• We will distribute the funds in two tranches with a mid-point report that will support the committee in learning the progress being made.

We remain committed to supporting the user group and linked communities and see this undertaking to strengthen its governance as a meaningful milestone needed to support future resourcing.

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.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff FElgueretly-WMF (talk) 06:22, 9 June 2024 (UTC) Reply