Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Open Foundation West Africa Annual Plan 2022

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 details[edit]

Wikimedia username(s):

Rberchie

Organization:

Open Foundation West Africa

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Applied previously and did receive a grant

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

No

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information[edit]

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Ghana

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Regional

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

West Africa (Ghana, Liberia) and on the African continent

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

Social Media

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ofwafrica LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/ofwafrica Twitter- https://twitter.com/OFWAFRICA Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/ofwafrica/ Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmoG8dQ8KsbWb7_kanElMfQ Website- https://ofwafrica.org/

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal[edit]

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

Mission Creating the awareness of all the available open resources, enticing its use by many and sharing the benefits of contributing towards the future of education and open learning Vision Getting more people to understand and use open resources as a basis for improving the quality and accessibility of educational resources.

2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?

In line with Wikimedia Foundation's vision of a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge, Open Foundation West Africa aims to empower people on the continent with skills on how to tell their stories using Wikipedia and its sister projects.

The Guardian reported in 2016 that only about 2.6 percent of the content on English Wikipedia was about Africa. Despite numerous concerted efforts to improve the statistics since then, the disparity persists. This is due to the fact that most people in our part of the world are either unaware of how they can contribute to platforms like Wikipedia or lack the requisite skills to participate in knowledge creation. Another factor contributing to the low representation of African content on Wikipedia and other sister projects is the region's low number of editors, which is also not gender balanced. Another issue we intend to address is the barriers to information access. Many schools in Ghana and across the continent continue to face difficulties in gaining access to online information or resources to improve their teaching and learning.

We developed specific goals to combat the threat of Africa's low representation on the web after identifying these challenges and their causes. This is accomplished through three thematic areas: Advocacy and Awareness, GLAM and Content Creation, and Training and Development (via our hubs and clubs network). Running campaigns and writing contests across the country and on the continent has been one way through which we are tackling the content gap and topics of impact within Wikimedia. We also provide certificate causes and progressive learning models to encourage content creation while gaining some credentials to ascertain the knowledge acquired (which could be used on CV’s). We make these training sessions open to the public in order to reach a wide range of people across the West Africa sub-region. We also organize annual projects aimed at increasing the visibility of African content on the internet. Through our Kiwix4schools program we provide offline access to Wikipedia and other educational resources to remote schools and deprived communities.

3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

Advocacy and Awareness: With advocacy we promote campaigns that support the broader vision of Education, Transparency in information access and copyright, gender etc. The main goal is to create awareness about Wikimedia projects and help change the narrative in these sectors. Through content campaigns like the Women of the Wiki, where we encourage diversified contributions by encouraging women participation and contribution on Wikipedia and its sister projects. GLAM and Content Creation: The Galleries, Libraries , Archives and Museums (GLAM) & Content Creation Program of OFWA focuses on opportunities that translate directly into content that improve Wikimedia projects. These contents are targeted at projecting the culture, history, heritage of a country which increases the visibility and diversity of content on Wikipedia.

Open Education: These projects are primarily focused on the application of Wikipedia and its sister projects in education. This involves activities centered around in-class assignments (Wikimedia Education Program, clubs and societies and on campus events which inadvertently leads to contributions on Wikipedia and its sister projects through students, instructors, patrons, etc. or making wikipedia and other open educational content accessible by schools which are offline all within an academic setting.The goal of this program is to present more opportunities within the education space in Ghana to ensure there are enough opportunities to create awareness and train more advocates within academia.

Hubs, Clubs and Societies: Partnering with tech hubs enables us to set up local wikimedia communities across the country to allow members from those communities to have the opportunity to learn about wikipedia and its sister projects. Our clubs provide a similar experience to students and our developer community creates an avenue for other forms of contribution (developers) within Wikimedia.

4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

Our focus is to carry on with the mandate conferred unto us to activate, train and empower countries within the West African subregion and on the continent to create and use content from the Wikimedia projects, diversifying contributions by reaching editors from different geographical backgrounds as well as introduce diverse contributions. Our proposal seeks to request the necessary funding to continue our programs and develop new programs and initiatives that can help us reach our goal.

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?

No

5.1 If yes, 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?

N/A

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

We have a diverse and dynamic team capable of championing and stirring our organisational goals and reaching the objectives of our programs. Our team members bring an array of expertise and come from different backgrounds that complement our organisational trajectory:

The Board: Raphael Berchie (User:Rberchie)-Co Founder and Organizational Strategist who helps to provide strategic direction and support for the organization. D.r Harry Barton Essel: University Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah Science and Technology (KNUST) who supported in the implementation of a Wikimedia Education Program at KNUST Dr. Anima Wiafe-Akenten: A lecturer at the University of Education Winneba language school and the first person to have a PHD in a local Ghanaian language. She brings her expertise on board as a language expert and educationist and helped us establish the Wiki Club on campus. Kweku Berko (User:Kweku Berko)- A community representative on the Board and Language enthusiast who supports developing language communities.

Core Team Ruby Damenshie-Brown (User:Ruby D-Brown)- She is currently supporting in a volunteer capacity for the role of Administrative Executive, was formerly the communications person, but took on a temporal role at the WMF as a Content campaign Fellow Eugene Masiku (User:- Communications officer (Paid staff) Jesse Asiedu (User:JWale)- Training Associate (Volunteer) Maxwell Benjamin (User:xhibit)- Training Associate (Volunteer)

Vacant roles(Roles that needs attention of a full time staff) Program Officer- a role that we really need to fill because there is a programmatic need of the organization. Programs Officers who will be responsible for overseeing program development, planning and executing program activities, performing program reviews, and writing reports, among other things.

8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

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

8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education, Advocacy, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Open Technology, Diversity

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Gender Identity, Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language, Age, Digital Access

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

General Public:Our projects are open to the general public and are not restricted by specific criteria such as age, background, gender, or location.In view of this we have created open educational resources materials including videos on our Youtube channel to make them accessible by the general public. Depending on the project we are running, our target audience may be specific to a particular audience. Learning Communities: Most of our programs are targeted towards the learning community in the region and continent. For instance secondary and tertiary institutions and teachers. Eg. Kiwix4schools project, Wikimedia in Education, Wiki Clubs, Summer Open School etc. target learning groups. Thematic Audience: Though our campaigns are open to the general public they ten to appeal to specific audiences. For instance, the Africa Wiki challenge tends to interest Pan Africanist people and groups across the continent and in the diaspora, Wikimedia affiliate organizers who will love to organize this event in their country. On the other hand, the Founders’ Day Ghana Writing contest attracts mostly the local people from Ghana who find interest in Ghana’s history, culture and heritage and are happy contributing to such information on Wikipedia and other sister projects. Campaigns like the Women of the Wiki encourage diversified contributions in terms of gender by encouraging women participation and contribution on Wikipedia and its sister project.

Hub and club technique: By establishing Hubs and clubs across the region, we ensure diversity in participation and fair representation of individuals with diverse backgrounds and geographical locations to participate and contribute information about their region on the Wiki projects. These hubs are located in different communities across the region, country and institutions to make local participants feel more at ease and ensure that they are well supported in terms of acquiring knowledge about wiki projects.

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

By ensuring that members are made aware of the UCOC and friendly space policy this will be linked to our registration forms, social media platforms and places where it will be visible for others to read about it.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

Yes

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.

Wiki pages We have shared our 2022 annual plan on the affiliate report portal on meta - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports Our current annual plan is currently featured on our Open Foundation West Africa meta page - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_Foundation_West_Africa The Africa Wiki Challenge audience can also see our plans on the project metapage - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Africa_Wiki_Challenge The Founders Day Ghana Writing Contest audience can also see our plans on the project metapage - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Founders_Day_Ghana_Writing_Contest Offline We will be presenting our full 2022 annual plan to the community at our upcoming AGM Social Media Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ofwafrica LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/ofwafrica Twitter- https://twitter.com/OFWAFRICA Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/ofwafrica/ Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmoG8dQ8KsbWb7_kanElMfQ

14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

Yes

14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

Media partners - Media partners support the work we do by offering us free airtime to share insights about Wikimedia and our ongoing projects.

Technology Hubs - These partners are integral to our growth strategy and they support us with training spaces where our hub networks across the regions convene for their meetups.

Project partners - We collaborate with partners on specific projects who support us in diverse ways. The Geothe institut, our partner on the DTI Contest which focuses on language contributions to Wikimedia projects provided a myriad of prizes and resource persons.

Universities - These institutions provide us with free training space on campus, and access to their students through the establishment of campus clubs.

Government agencies - Governmental organizations can be great allies and strategic partners to amplify one's work. We have partnered with institutions such as the Ministry of Information, GMMB, National Film Authority and Ministry of Tourism.

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?

Ensuring sustainability through strategic alliance with Tech Hubs- Our strategic alliance with tech hubs across the country provides a unique sustainable growth strategy for us. Each of these regional hubs are somewhat autonomous due to their affiliation with our partner hubs, meaning that in the absence of OFWA these partnership structures can continue to empower their communities and create awareness about Wikimedia projects.

Ensuring a sustainable legacy through our regional organisers framework - Through our regional hub structures we are growing and building the capacity of new organisers at the regional level. Through this leadership structure we are empowering communities across the country of Ghana and in other West African countries to sustain their activities without the help of OFWA.

Initiating the next generation of users and contributors of Wikipedia through the Kiwix4school project: Wikipedia becomes more powerful when it is read, hence empowering the next set of users to identify Wikipedia as that meta platform for knowledge is crucial, which is what the Kiwix4schools project seeks to achieve. Initiating these youth to this program creates awareness about Wikipedia and inspires these students to contribute to it.

Building academic pathways to Wikipedia through Librarians in Ghana: With our Librarian project, we will empower the librarian community to create awareness about Wikipedia and encourage its continued use in their respective universities.

16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

n/a

17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Ensure Equity in Decision-making, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

18. 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.

No

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

All of our programs' organizations include program assessment as a key component. We create goals for ourselves as we organize our campaigns. In order to evaluate the development of our projects, we define milestones and develop a set of questions that we will answer before the project is completed and from which we will learn. Our work focuses on equipping Africans with the skills they need to contribute their fair share to the representation of the continent on Wikimedia projects. The following are some of the questions we seek to answer or look into: How many people did our message (communications) reach? How many people inquired about the project when they came across it? How many people did we train on how to edit Wikipedia and its sister projects? How many people actually contributed African content on Wikimedia projects? How many new participants were recruited? How did we encourage diverse participation in terms of gender? Did participants have major challenges assessing the world of Wiki? How many people participated in our project(s)? How many articles were created? How many new partners were recruited? What is the rate of retention? Who was impacted? How did we overcome obstacles in executing projects/programs? Challenges/obstacles faced by organizers? Challenges/obstacles faced by participants? Did we meet our objective? What was the feedback from participants?

20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.


Main Metrics	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

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.


Additional Metrics	Description	Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities	N/A	N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities	N/A	N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability	N/A	N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors	N/A	N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees	N/A	N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications	N/A	N/A
Number of activities developed	N/A	N/A
Number of volunteer hours	N/A	N/A

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	Participants from 10 regions in Ghana and via our online training/campaigns from across the continent will benefit from our activities. We target about 1000 participants throughout the year. 500 new participants and 500 returning participants.	1000
Number of editors	The number of editors in all activities; 300 particularly females and students from the various universities where we have clubs. 300 new editors or account creations	300
Number of organizers	Our organizers include 5 core team members, 20 hub and club leaders across the region, 10 affiliate organizers across the continent, 15 community volunteers to implement Kiwix project.	50

**Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project**
Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
Wikipedia	our programs will seek to derive content surrounding gender, biographies of notable women, and increase information about the regions of Ghana as well as bridge thematic gaps like culture, history, geographic locations, Africa, etc. 1500 articles	1500
Wikimedia Commons	We seek to generate audiovisual content on Wikimedia Commons through our Wiki Loves campaigns and other related campaigns on WIkimedia through images, videos etc.We want to be able to generate over 1800 images 200video files on Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other sister project	2000
Wikidata	We seek to generate wikidata items from existing articles, newly created articles and uploads on Wikimedia commons by encouraging members and participants about the importance of wikidata as well as build their capacity around it.	2000
Incubator	We seek to grow contribution on local languages in incubator wiki eg Ga	100
N/A	N/A	N/A

21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

N/A

22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

Programs & Events Dashboard Google forms to collect information about participants as well as feedback Event metrics Creating categories for photo contest

tools

Financial Proposal[edit]

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

1090816.32 GHS

23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

185198 USD

23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

We have attached a spreadsheet listing all items in bullet as requested

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

N/A

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

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.

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

Yes

Feedback[edit]

Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.