Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round1/Wikimedia Argentina/Proposal form/Evaluation ex-ante, context and approaches

VISION AND MISION FOR 2015

The purpose of Wikimedia Argentina’s Strategic Plan for 2015 is to cover the strategic guidelines under which, all programs, projects and specific activities for next year will be developed

During 2015 Wikimedia Argentina intends to continue with several of the activities proposed earlier, while making way for a new approach to program consolidation and community support, to proposing, discussing and deciding on the participation of the Association in the world and for the world, and ensuring its sustainability through correctly formulated and evaluated projects which will achieve the expected results and impact.

In this regard, Wikimedia Argentina has performed an important exercise of self evaluation during the elaboration of the present Strategic Plan: analyzing the past in order to plan for the future and to work out realistic strategies, objectives, activities and expected results. In line with this reflection, the present Strategic Plan describes Wikimedia Argentina’s goal:

1. Consolidating its different lines of work to achieve the degree of maturity necessary for their sustainability.
2. Setting new objectives considered key for the implementation of the strategic lines proposed.
3. Evaluating the detected needs and weaknesses, taking relevant action in response.

We have aimed at positioning Wikimedia Argentina as a present actor within society and in the world. At the same time, we cross-cut education –second objective of the Millennium- and the preservation of local patrimony and cultural heritage, as Human Rights. In addition, Wikimedia Argentina’s projects will specifically mainstream gender perspective and include the diversity perspective in all its programs and actions.

Strategic Planning 2015 - Vision

The vision of Wikimedia Argentina is to generate newer and better spaces within argentine society to continue to build knowledge under the guidelines established by free culture, to impulse education and access to knowledge as rights, and support the preservation of local patrimony through methods of collaborative and participatory working. The means for the construction and diffusion of this pubic cultural legacy are the Wikimedia projects.

Strategic Planning 2015 - Mission

Our mission can be summarized in the following points:

1. To encourage the diffusion of free knowledge with the participation of more editors in Wikimedia projects.
2. To take on new users in the community of Wikimedia projects.
3. To support the needs of existing users.
4. To establish new relations that help us increase awareness of the importance of local cultural patrimony.
5. To position our objectives as part of the right to education and culture, locally and regionally.
6. To promote Wikimedia projects in Argentina and increase the number of users.

CONTEXT: CURRENT SITUATION OF WIKIMEDIA ARGENTINA AT INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LEVEL

In order to determine the starting point from where we will define our different strategic lines, main purpose of the present Annual Plan 2015, we must analyze the current context of Wikimedia Argentina, identifying its main strengths and weaknesses.

From the methodological perspective, the strategic lines on which we will base our specific activities are founded on the following proposals:

• Promotion of community involvement: generating participation instances that allow end users of Wikimedia to be involved in the projects from formulation to activity evaluation.
• Participatory strengthening of the organization: encouraging the understanding of the Wikimedia Argentina community as a group that takes part in the decision-making and the execution of projects.
• Scaling up: Working at federal and regional level to improve and reinforce our local capacity through the community, aiming to place Wikimedia Projects in the local, regional and international agendas.
• Introducing gender mainstreaming in the formulation of projects: The estimated growth of Wikimedia Argentina in 2015 will be a reflection of the incursion of the Gender Approach and Diversity Mainstreaming into each of the projects derived from the different strategic lines.

Considering the above, our current context could be summarized by the following SWOT analysis:

Strengths:

• Staff commitment to Wikimedia Argentina’s Vision and Mission.
• Excellent relations between the staff and the members of the Directive Board.
• Well defined identity. Programs which respond to the vision and mission of the Wikimedia movement.
• Good degree of participation of our partners in activities of the Association.
• Good relation of Wikimedia Argentina and the community of Argentine volunteers of Wikimedia projects.
• Permanent contact and cooperation with other chapters in Latin America and the Iberocoop network.
• Management model in agreement with the compromise of Wikimedia Argentina to Wikimedia “projects”.
• Growing capacity of promotion of our projects at federal level.
• Good reception of Wikimedia projects among our stakeholders.
• Increasingly strong positioning of Wikimedia Argentina in social media.

Weaknesses:

• Reduced number of staff.
• Unforeseen changes in the work team during 2014, which delayed or hindered the achievement of some objectives of the 2014 plan.
• Difficulty to dedicate equal attention to all projects, especially those depending directly on volunteer work.
• Lack of knowledge among project editors of what Wikimedia Argentina is, and how it works.
• Lack of continuity of the activities as part of a program, rather than as isolated actions.

Opportunities:

• National conjuncture that favors the introduction of new technologies in schools.
• Good relations established with the national and local governments.
• National, regional and local governments compromised through public policies to the cultural development of the country.
• Constant creation of new spaces for reflection on new technologies and education.
• Good reception of Wikimedia Argentina and its projects among existing and future “stakeholders”.
• Capacity to extend our relation with Wikimedia Project volunteers.

Threats:

• Economical instability of the country, which hinders the development of national projects.
• General elections in 2015 that may bring changes to the current national policies.
• Reticence in some academic and official circles concerning the legitimacy of the contents of Wikipedia.

INTERVENTION APPROACHES OF WIKIMEDIA ARGENTINA

By intervention approaches, we understand all the modalities of work, regardless the area they are framed in, which will necessarily be integrated in the activities carried out by the Association during 2015. Intervention approaches mean the transversalization of our actions through the programs and projects to be developed by Wikimedia Argentina, with the ultímate purpose to establish transversalization as leading principle and defining characteristic of our work, which will be reflected in our proposed projects.

Consequently, each of our projects and activities will take into consideration the intervention approaches described in our strategy for 2015: (1) Participatory approach, (2) Gender Equity and Diversity Inclusion (3) Associative work (4) Result-based management.

• Participatory approach: As an Association, we defend the value of participation. Participation of our partners and the community of Wikimedia projects as actors and main characters in the development of the programs and actions planned. From Wikimedia Argentina we understand the importance of generating a solid foundation of volunteers that favors stronger involvement and compromise of new and existing members.
  

We need to develop management mechanisms and procedures for identification, follow up and evaluation , which will allow us to best match the expectations of both the association and its volunteers, to guarantee their identification with our organizational values and their long term commitment.

Installed capacity must be a differentiating element with active participants.

• Gender Equity and Diversity InclusionWikimedia Argentina compromises to implement the necessary measures to ensure that it continues to be a inclusive organization, making no distinctions by reason of gender, sex, identity or sexual orientation, as well as promoting gender equity in all interventions.
  

The mainstreaming of the gender approach constitutes an organizational commitment that goes beyond any individualistic approach, aiming at projecting every action of Wikimedia Argentina on the basis of respect for this approach, in order to mitigate the gender gap, and complying with the guidelines established in the Beijing Declaration on Gender Equality.

This means that gender analysis takes a priority place in the processes of reflection, planning and work which will frame every action taken during 2015, turning our actions into principle vectors.

Besides, the actions projected by Wikimedia Argentina are based on the concept of cultural integrationism. We will acknowledge the cultural diversity of the groups that share the territory, while working on the interdependence among them to provide spaces where different cultures can discuss and exchange norms and values, through dialogue and participation.

In this sense, each of the programs and projects developed by Wikimedia Argentina for 2015, respond to the need to call for interculturality as a mechanism of plural integration.

• Associative WorkAssociative work involves the coordination and collaboration among the different organizational areas of Wikimedia Argentina, and the people with whom we articulate our actions and activities.
  

The work derived from our actions in the frame of Iberocoop is also included under the approach of associative work, contemplating, not just the construction of common proposals which promote good regional performance, but also the effort to make available and share the work online.

In this regard, we will avoid disjointed actions which strive for an immediate and short-term effect. Instead, activities both at regional and national level, will be planned on the basis of processes which have been programmed for the medium term and which are evaluated annually and, if required, redirected.

We are betting on the implementation of programs and projects of long term duration which kick-start the improvement of the operative sustainability of the organization.

• Management based on results

Wikimedia Argentina’s lines of work will be formulated through the Logical Framework Approach (LFA from now onwards). Likewise, in response to the global trend in terms of international aid and financing, Wikimedia Argentina will endorse the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in the management of financial resources, particularly concerning Results based management.

In this regard, our actions for 2015 have been formulated under the following premises

• Result-focused management, organizing the resources to reach specific objectives.
  
• Use of results as a learning tool throughout the different operative stages.
  
• Matching the programming, follow up and evaluation with the forecasted results.
  
• Applying results based management at all stages of implementation.