Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Catalyzing Africa's knowledge creation ecosystem through AfroCuration-Building the connective tissue between Wikimedia affiliates and cultural and creative organizations on the African continent
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Applicant information[edit]
Organization name
- Moleskine Foundation Inc
Organization type
- Mission-aligned organization
Wikimedia username(s)
- Papa Baiden
Tochiprecious
Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Applied previously and did receive a grant
Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- Yes
- Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- Moleskine Foundation Inc. was legally registered in 2019. Wikimedia Foundation remains the only organization that provides grant funding through the Moleskine Foundation Inc.
- Please state the size of these grants from the following options.
- Between 5,000-50,000 USD
- What type of organization (s) did you receive grants from?
- International NGO
- What percentage of your program budget do other funders contribute to?
- Between 30 and 75%
Are you legally registered?
- Yes
What type of organization are you?
- Non profit organisation
What is your organization or group's mission and how does it align with the Wikimedia movement?
- The Moleskine Foundation pursues a mission of ‘Creativity for Social Change’. We provide unconventional educational tools and cultural experiences to unlock the creative potential of young people to transform themselves and their communities. Through a 5 year partnership with Wikimedia Foundation, we are building the connective tissue between the Wikimedia movement and cultural organizations to increase culturally relevant content that promotes the African voices and experiences.
If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
- Website: https://moleskinefoundation.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moleskinefoundation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moleskinefoundation/ inkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moleskinefoundation/ Medium: https://medium.com/@moleskinefoundation Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3LpiJVTHpLNT1cKweD7T0l
Grant proposal[edit]
Please state the title of your proposal.
- Catalyzing Africa's knowledge creation ecosystem through AfroCuration: Building the connective tissue between Wikimedia affiliates and cultural and creative organizations on the African continent
Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Mozambique
Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries?
- Regional
- This project will engage Moleskine Foundation's existing network of cultural partners. Although not GLAM classified, they provide an untapped resource to develop the WikiMovement. Leveraging the AfroCuration format, we aim to connect, train and support Wikimedia affiliates and cultural and creative organizations under the umbrella of Creativity for Social change paradigm. The AfroCuration format, to increase youth engagement from minorities and underrepresented narratives.
Are there any specific sub-regions or areas where your proposal will be implemented? (optional)
- Southern Africa
Mozambique: we want to return to the Nampula region of Mozambique, and work to find new editors, re-engage ones from last year, and build deeper connections with the local university. South Africa: Using the network of cultural partners in Johannesburg, we will continue to deepen youth capacity to build knowledge.
East Africa: Tanzania: Wikimedia Tanzania’s WikiforUniversities project is aligned with our direction for embedding Afro Curation in institutions. Translating the AfroCuraiton toolkit in Swahili will allow it to be understood by a wider audience.
West Africa:
Ghana: Our cultural partner network is growing in this region, as is our existing relationship with the Wikipedia community. Building on these relationships will allow to reach more underrepresented communities we now have access to.
Senegal: our cultural partner who’s well established has indicated great interest collaborating with our format and Wiki communities.
What is the challenge or problem you are addressing and why is this important?
- The African continent, its people, and its languages are underrepresented in global digital knowledge networks. Taking Wikipedia, the world’s leading example of a digital knowledge network, Stats.wikipedia.org shows content concerning the African continent or written by Africans is completely dwarfed by european or north american content, and active editors from these regions. African narratives are often written by people outside Africa, enforcing biases in the content with which Africans are forced to engage with. Boosting knowledge creation on the Wikipedia platform that concerns Africa, especially in African languages, will lead to more knowledge concerning the content being accessible online, greater use and preservation of African languages, and contribute to building a movement of critical thinkers who actively participate to improve their communities. Our proven approach of leading with culture, knowledge and activism will make Wikipedia more relevant to Africa, youth, and underserved communities.
Wikimedian communities are best placed to lead this knowledge creation activities. However, as a cultural organization, our learnings from working alongside the Wikipedia movement show 2 key things: 1) that an approach led with culture, creativity and activism can attract and inspire new users into the movement, and 2) that greater synergy is needed between Wikimedians as technical platform experts, and creative and cultural organizations as subject matter experts who are willing to share their knowledge. These organizations usually fall outside of GLAM, have an abundance of knowledge, and have not yet found a “way in” to the movement. We have a track record of convening the two, and distilled our methodology into a toolkit to share openly.
Our learnings showed us that whilst our AfroCuration events have proven to be one way to bridge the worlds of cultural organizations and Wikimedian communities, we also noticed where things fall short. 1) Without a tested program methodology stakeholders are unlikely to collaborate, and if they do there will be avoidable inefficiencies we’ve solved before. 2) Participant management and recruiting (the ability to both find, and manage, participants) are a make-or-break skill for implementers.
Whilst existing in relatively similar spaces in the world of education, knowledge management, and culture, the Wikimedia communities and cultural organizations have often found it difficult to partner due to: low awareness of each other and familiarity of the overlap in mission, lack of a format that could bring out the strengths of both partners, and the rigidity of past definitions of GLAM preventing similar but less known institutions being approached.
We believe we can build on the momentum and trust of our past work to focus on striking collaboration between Wikipedia Communities and cultural organisations, of which we have an extensive network. They will build the capacity of knowledge producers locally.
What is the main objective of your proposal? Please state why you think partnering with Wikimedia Movement helps to achieve this objective?
- To contribute to developing a more diverse and inclusive Wikimedia platform by connecting Wikipedia communities and cultural partners. We can connect and convene train these two key constituencies to produce more knowledge and content on the cultures, communities and people of Africa accessible on Wikipedia. And whilst focusing on African languages. Our proven approach of leading with culture, knowledge and activism will make Wikipedia more relevant to Africa, youth, and underserved communities.
Describe your main strategies to achieve this objective?
- We plan to connect, train and support Wikimedia affiliates and cultural and creative organizations through the AfroCuration format with the aim of increasing the engagement of youth from minority groups to boost content production of underrepresented narratives.
Specifically, We will facilitate the development of collaborations and partnerships between Wikimedia chapters and C&C organizations for sustainable production of content on Wikipedia and engagement of African languages speakers youth involved in the humanities, culture, art, and creative sectors with a strong focus on women and minorities groups. This project will combine the decade-long experience in wiki projects development and implementation with our unique network of cultural and creative organizations from the African continent.
Deliver dedicated training for each (5x) community. Here community is intended as groupings of both the Wikimedian community and a cultural partner. The training will cover the main aims of the wider WAE program, and establish a fruitful and long-lasting collaborations between the two entities through Afrocuration. We will also share our new approach for aligning this work with our organisational mission. The MSKF Wikimedian in Residence will deliver this training session. It will likely be most relevant for the intended implementation team at the organisation. Workshop: With the aim of building a sustainable model, where the knowledge on African cultures, people and communities can be continuously and autonomously created by local cultural institutions and Wikipedia communities, we shall run a workshop that will involve both Wikipedians and cultural partners in the ideation session on how best to embed AfroCuration format in the institutions' programs. The session will involve the representatives of 5 Wikipedia chapters and their respective cultural partners, as well as MSKF team and Wikipedian in Residence, and will be conducted by an external design thinking expert. We want to co-create and discover how to get WAE to live in different institutions, while having Wikipedians actively involved in the process, and have this thinking inform planning at the implementation stage. Toolkit enables events: The AfroCuration toolkit shall be the North star to guide Wikimedia communities implementing AfroCuraiton with their chosen creative and cultural organisation. The guide explains the methodology, gives a timeline, a checklist, and other resources to enable the successful production of an event independent of MSKF implementation team (Wikimedian community and cultural and creative partner would be implementing). This project will build on 2021 partners and networks
Are you running any in-person events or activities?
- Yes
Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified content knowledge gaps?
- Content Gender gap, Age (regency) , Geography, Language, Sexual Orientation, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or thematic focus.
- Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Human Rights, Diversity
Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select all categories that apply.
- Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language, Socioeconomic status, Age, Digital Access
Please tell us more about your target participants.
- Moleskine Foundation has a strategic focus on supporting, inspiring and encouraging youth between the ages of 16-27 who are from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds. These youth often have a proximity to arts and culture, are intellectually curious and willing to discover and work on themselves (in a self-awareness context).
Requirements to participate in our events will be speaking an African language, being from the continent or a diaspora community, and being within our target age range.
Participants are recruited from the cultural partner’s constituency, ensuring the interest in the curatorial theme and cultural element. This means a proximity to arts and culture, and increases the chances of having intellectually curious people opt-in by choice. Specific thematic material can also be a greater hook for participants in some underrepresented communities, as was the case back in previous events such as AfroCuration in December 2019 at Constitution Hill, in collaboration with Afropunk. Afropunk have strong and clear values surrounding gender and sexual orientation, which pulling in members of a much needed and underrepresented community as participants. They were interested in our theme which was “Writing Black Women into history”. We plan to employ all these dynamics when attracting participants to AfroCuration events.
The aforementioned workshop between Wikipedians and Cultural organizations is also part of a strategy to find a sustainable model to incorporate WAE into the institution's program. The intent here is to ensure the participants are consistently engaged, retained and active in the long-term.
Do you have plans to work with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
- Yes
If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
- We plan to work with :
WM Tanzania Twi Wikimedians User Group Wikimedia South Africa Wikimedia Nigeria Arabic User Group WM Brazil/Portugal
So far we have had lengthy conversation with Wikimedia Tanzania’s co founder and the main team of the Twi user group concerning the prospect of collaborating longer term, now that we have live projects together.
Also we have made the proposal also taking into consideration learnings from engagements with Wikimedia affiliates in Brazil and Portugal in the support of Mozambican community we helped create.
Contact with the Arabic community has also begun positively, showing that Wiki communities are willing to support our work and are ready to collaborate with our format, which is further strengthened by the chance to work alongside credible cultural institutions.
Wikimedians from Nigeria have been indispensable to the program’s success in their preparedness to support territories where no user group previously exists.
If no, please tell us the reasons why it has not been possible to make these connections.
- N/A
Will you be working with other external non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
- Yes
If yes, please describe these partnerships.
- Ethale Publishing is a publisher of African stories. Focusing on building digital distribution and local content channels that value African stories, through investment in African narratives. They have been a highly successful/visible partner in delivering the first AfroCuration in Mozambique during our 2021/22 event series with WMF support. As a cultural partner, they are interested in the role they and their local connections can play in training and keeping engaged, more knowledge producers.
Constitution Hill promotes, through educational programs, events and campaigns, the South African Constitution, human rights and democracy. The Constitution Hill Trust also promotes constitutional literacy for all people through their experience of the Hill which serves as a living memory of South Africa’s transition to democracy and a place where a shared heritage and common future, founded on South Africa’s constitutional values, is celebrated. As the first home of AfroCuration, it great they’re happy and willing to continue hosting the format in their community.
Kër Thiossane, Villa for art and multimedia, is an association and an NGO under Senegalese law created in 2002. One of Moleskine Foundation’s oldest partners, they have expressed interest in having the WAE program return to Senegal and engage their community at the intersection of tech, culture, and the arts.
Oroko Radio: Oroko is a not-for-profit independent internet radio station based in Accra, Ghana. We aim to connect, inspire and empower through conversation, collaboration and community. This partner could be useful for expanding content creation in Ghana with our targeted communities. They are existing recipients of our Creativity Pioneers Support Fund.
Africa No Filter (ANF) support the development of nuanced and contemporary stories that shift stereotypical and harmful narratives within and about Africa, and do this through research, grant-making and advocacy.
Fondazione Aurora, a strategic partner of ours, is a non-profit organisation committed to the scaling up of African social impact enterprises with innovative capabilities and territorial relationships. They work through applied research in order to improve products and services, provide technical assistance and operational funds for capital endowment. We also establish strategic partnerships to bring African business initiatives into the global value chain. They support the WikiAfrica Education program as it contributes to their aim of: Consolidation of a more inclusive business climate, and to active knowledge production for a comprehensive narrative on Africans.
If yes, indicate sharing of resources from these partners (in kind support, grants, donations, payments).
- N/A
Please tell us how your organization is structured.
Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
- N/A
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]
What do you hope to learn from this proposal?
Core Metrics[edit]
Enter a description of the metric and a number in the target field. If the metric does not apply to you, enter N/A for not applicable.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | ||
| Number of editors | ||
| Number of organizers |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation. (optional)
- N/A
What other information will you be collecting to learn about the impact of your work? (optional)
- N/A
What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
How do you hope to share these results so that others can learn from them?
Financial Proposal[edit]
What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency.
What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- USD
Please provide a budget for the amount of funding requested.
What do you do to make sure there is a good management of funds?
How will you contribute towards creating a supportive environment for participants using the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy?
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Staffing plan or organogram:
- Other public document(s):
Final message[edit]
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friend Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- No
Feedback[edit]
- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.