Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Free Knowledge Africa Development Support 2024/2025

statusAwaiting grantee reply

Wikimedia Community Fund

Free Knowledge Africa Development Support 2024/2025

start date2024-07-01

end date2025-06-30

budget (local currency)48727577 NGN

amount requested (USD)32160.2 USD

grant typeNonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission

funding regionSSA

decision fiscal year2023-24

funding program roundRound 2

organization (if applicable)Access to Knowledge Africa Initiative

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• Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Free Knowledge Africa Development Support 2024/2025

This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the grantmaking web service of Wikimedia Foundation where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.

Applicant information

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)

Access to Knowledge Africa Initiative

Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)

Yes, I have already applied and received a General Support Fund

You are applying as a(n). (required)

Nonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission

Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)

Yes

Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)

Free Knowledge Africa Development Support 2024/2025

2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year funding or renewal process? (required)

No but we would like to apply for renewal next time

2.1. For how many years of multi-year funding are you applying? (required)

N/A

2.2. Provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan? (required)

N/A

3. Proposed start date. (required)

2024-07-01

4. Proposed end date. (required)

2025-06-30

5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

No

6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

Yes

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Knowledge_Africa/Strategic_Plan_for_Free_Knowledge_Africa_2022_-_2024

7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)

Regional (more than one country in the same continent or region)

Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya

8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

Free Knowledge Africa employs a multifaceted approach to achieve its mission of advancing open knowledge, bridging knowledge gaps, and making public domain works accessible in Nigeria. Our main strategies are as follows:

Community Engagement: We prioritize building the capacity of local communities in Nigeria to champion and contribute to open knowledge initiatives. Through workshops, training sessions, and cultural heritage documentation, various outreach activities, we aim to raise awareness and deepen understanding of the significance of open access to information and cultural heritage resources. By empowering community members, we foster a sense of ownership and sustainability for our initiatives while cultivating a network of advocates and supporters for open knowledge. We also intend to set up a community of librarians, information professionals, tour guides, sports journalists, and lawyers to advance the work we do.

Stakeholder Engagement: Recognizing the importance of collaboration, we actively engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, including government agencies, cultural institutions, academia, and civil society organizations. Through advocacy efforts, networking opportunities, and collaborative projects, we seek to build partnerships and garner support for our initiatives, leveraging collective expertise and resources to drive meaningful change. We intend to consolidate existing partnerships with the National Library, Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Goethe Institut, Yoruba Academy and Centre for Contemporary Arts to encourage them to release some of their works under open licenses. We intend to build new partnerships by collaborating with other open knowledge entities, cultural institutions, and academic institutions, we exchange knowledge, share resources, and amplify the impact of our collective efforts, driving positive change on a larger scale.

Digital Infrastructure: To facilitate the digitization, cataloguing, and dissemination of public domain works in Nigeria, we are committed to establishing a robust digital infrastructure. Working closely with technical experts, we will develop and maintain digital platforms and tools tailored to our needs. We will leverage existing platforms such as Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata for hosting media files, maximizing efficiency and impact in our efforts. This will help promote the reuse of the works particularly works in the public domain by the general public.

Advocacy and Public Engagement: We actively advocate for open access to information and cultural heritage resources through targeted advocacy campaigns and engagement with traditional and social media platforms. By participating in public events, visits to GLAM institutions, leveraging social media platforms, and amplifying our message, we will raise awareness and garner support for our initiatives, particularly awareness of the public domain, driving broader societal change. We will organize social media challenges to spark conversation and generate actions that advance our theory of change; find works in the public domain, and promote access and reuse.

Campaigns and Content Drives: Free Knowledge Africa implements targeted campaigns and content drives to promote open knowledge further and facilitate the accessibility of public domain works. These initiatives aim to engage a wider audience and encourage active participation in contributing to and utilizing open knowledge resources. By organizing themed campaigns, content creation challenges, and collaborative content drives, we stimulate interest, generate momentum, and enrich the open knowledge ecosystem. These efforts will not only amplify our message but also foster a culture of knowledge-sharing and collaboration within and beyond our communities. We will organize campaigns and contests such as Afrosports and Explore Africa, as well as editing workshops and edit-a-thons which will help create new content and improve existing content on Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikidata, Wikisource and Wikimedia Commons. This will also help to attract new contributors to Wikimedia projects and improve the skills of existing editors.

Free Knowledge Africa will undertake a range of programs as part of its strategies for promoting open knowledge and making public domain works available in Nigeria. These programs include:

1. Wiki Tourism Education Program: Free Knowledge Africa will establish a Wiki Education Program for hospitality and tourism students. This program will introduce students to the principles of open knowledge and will train them to contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. This will help to build a new generation of open-knowledge advocates and contributors in Nigeria.

2. Public Domain Advocacy: Free Knowledge Africa will work on getting more work in the public domain. The process of setting up the database will include identification, documentation, and digitization of public domain works in Nigeria. This database will serve as a central resource for open access to information and cultural heritage resources in Nigeria and will help to promote greater equity and inclusion in knowledge production and sharing. The digitized files will be hosted on Wikimedia Commons and reused on and off Wikimedia projects.

3. Advocacy and outreach program: Free Knowledge Africa will develop an advocacy and outreach program to engage with librarians and sports professionals on open access, open licenses, and public domain issues. This program will provide training and resources to help these professionals promote open access and public domain access in their work and will help to build a network of advocates and supporters for open knowledge in Nigeria. To educate the general public, we will organize social media campaigns, challenges and hashtag trends to promote the release and use of works in the Public Domain.

4. Monthly editing workshops: Free Knowledge Africa will host monthly editing workshops on different themes related to travel, sports, tourism, geography, and cultural heritage. These workshops will provide a space for community members to learn and collaborate and will help to build a network of open knowledge advocates and contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikidata, Wikisource) in Nigeria. Also works that have been released in the public domain and digitized would be reused in the workshops.

5. Afrosports: Free Knowledge Africa will organize the contest to bridge the content gap on Wikipedia by writing articles about the historical and contemporary African Sports Scene focusing on the English Wikipedia and 5 African languages; Wikipedia (Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Swahili and Kinyarwanda). As part of the Afrosports project, Free Knowledge Africa will engage and partner with sports organizations, institutions and federations to release works in the public domain. These works will also be utilized as part of the project to provide more context about sports in Africa.

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)

Category	Yes/No
Education	Yes
Culture, heritage or GLAM	Yes
Gender and diversity	No
Community support and engagement	Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests	Yes
Public policy advocacy	No
Other	No

Education

9.1.1. Select all your programs and activities for Education. (required)

Editing Wikipedia Training

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

9.1.2. Select all relevant audience groups for Education. (required)

Vocational, tertiary, or higher education

Other groups if any: N/A

Culture, heritage or GLAM

9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required)

Introducing new approaches to underrepresented culture and heritage, e.g. decolonising or reparative work; oral and visual knowledge; outreach to communities of origin, indigenous and first nations self-determination, Supporting institutions to open up their collections, data, metadata, and research, Supporting GLAM professionals to incorporate use of Wikimedia in their work, through documentation, training, or Wikimedian in Residence programs, Partnering with institutions, professional associations, and allied organizations to raise awareness of open culture, ethical sharing, and related issues

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.

On-wiki training of community members, Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events, Supporting community members' participation in events and conferences, Offering microgrants and other financial support to community members , Offering non financial support and services to community members (equipment, space, books, etc.)

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Participation in campaigns and contests

9.5. Select all campaigns that apply. (required)

Other

Other programs and activities if any: AfroSports

Explore Africa

10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SciVSJ35Nk-gqafQqy-gZ8IO8I4JGi3ZX1gcrC3EP7Y/edit?usp=sharing

11. Describe your team. (required)

Isaac Oloruntimilehin [User:Timmylegend] - (Director of Growth/Strategy) - He is an experienced Wikipedian, and the past leader of the Wikimedia Fan Club, University of Ilorin. He has organised various campaigns at the University of Ilorin Wikimedia community such as Nigeria Expedition, Explore Nigeria, 1Lib1Ref, Art+Feminism, Wiki Loves Africa, and Wikipedia pages wanting photos. He was a participant at Wiki Indaba 2019 and Wikimania 2021 conferences. He is the project and campaign lead.

Alaafiabami Oladipupo [User: Haylad] - (Director of Education/Research) - He has previously led the Wikimedia Fan Club, University of Ilorin, organized multiple meetups and Wiki loves Africa photo walks/events at the University Club in Ilorin and Ado-Ekiti in 2019 and 2020 respectively. He has previously organised the Afrocine Nigeria Contest and facilitated multiple events and training. He was also the Regional ambassador for the 2021 HACK4OPENGLAM during the 2021 CC summit. He will be in charge of training, recruiting and onboarding new members during the projects.

Bolaji Alabi [User:Bilijin] - (Director of Programs) - She is an experienced mobile developer and Wikimedian with a knack for prudence. She has been contributing to the Wikimedia project since 2018 and just handed over her leadership of the Wikimedia Fan Club, University of Ilorin. She will facilitate the creation of landing pages, instructional videos/materials, virtual meetings and the selection of speakers/trainers for virtual training workshops for new members.

Olubusola Afolabi [User:Ifedohlapo] - (GLAM Associate) - She is a librarian, an experienced Wikimedian, and a one-time Events Manager at the Wikimedia Fan Club, University of Ilorin. She is interested in the GLAM space and advocates for Open Access practices in Cultural Heritage Institutions.

Godstime Elijah [User:Godstime Elijah] - (Volunteer, Logistics) -He is a free knowledge advocate and experience Wikimedian who has organizes several campaigns both within and outside the University of Ilorin Wikimedia community such as Art+Feminism, Afrocine contest, and Wikipedia pages wanting photos

Hope Onuh [User:Hopilo12] - (Volunteer, Community Engagement) - She will act as the community manager and social media manager.

Olutosin Agbeyi [User:Ayo Tee] - (Volunteer, Training and Development) - She is a teacher and Wikipedian, volunteering with the education and training team.

Temitayo Omisore - (Volunteer, Event Coordination) - She is an event organizer and decorator with skills in project management.

Oluseun Olanrewaju [User:Eyinjuseun] - (Volunteer, Community Engagement) - She is a student of Food Science at the University of Ilorin and an avid food researcher.

12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

We have established partnerships with the Nigerian Library Association in Kwara State and the Plateau State Tourism Corporation. They will assist in setting up the public domain database and executing the documentation of cultural heritage sites, respectively.

We will also collaborate with GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) and Local Heritage Institutions in Nigeria to encourage them to adopt open licenses and make their collections accessible. Previously, we have partnered with GLAM institutions in Kwara state and aim to expand these partnerships nationwide. While convincing them to release works under Creative Commons licenses can be challenging, we are committed to educating them about the benefits of open access and the public domain. We also plan to initiate discussions on digitizing their public domain materials. Additionally, we are in the process of forming a partnership with Library Aid Africa.

Furthermore, we intend to strengthen existing partnerships with institutions such as the National Library, Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Goethe Institut, Yoruba Academy, and Centre for Contemporary Arts to encourage them to release their works under open licenses.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Innovate in Free Knowledge

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers

Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	1000	N/A
Number of all editors	500	N/A
Number of new editors	250
Number of retained editors	120
Number of all organizers	N/A	N/A
Number of new organizers	N/A

14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects

Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia	1500	1000
Wikimedia Commons	1500
Wikidata	250
Wiktionary
Wikisource	100
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage	300
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)

Yes

Other Metrics	Description	Target
Reuse	The number of public domain works that will be reused	300
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

Budget

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)

No

16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

N/A

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)

N/A

17. Your local currency. (required)

NGN

18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)

48727577 NGN

Multi-year funding request summary

Year	Amount (local currency)
Year 1	N/A NGN
Year 2	N/A NGN
Year 3	N/A NGN

Requested amount in USD

32160.2 USD

Multi-year funding request summary in USD

Year	Amount USD
Year 1	N/A USD
Year 2	N/A USD
Year 3	N/A USD

19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)

Yes

19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)

Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.

Five (5)

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)

Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.

2.5

19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)

There are no changes

20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).

Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contractor costs	36473530 NGN
Operational costs	2850000 NGN
Programmatic costs	9404047 NGN

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q98_uDu6JcBkyKar8wfmhuWgKCCgFTyW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100326636374385432300&rtpof=true&sd=true

Additional information

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

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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.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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