Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Advancing WISCom's work around pan-African Hub, WikiIndaba 2025, Africa Agenda and Africa Baraza (ID: 23654055)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Ceslause
- Organization
Wiki Indaba Steering Committee
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
I'm a staff member or contractor in a Wikimedia Affiliate, group, or allied organization.
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Executive Coordinator, Wiki Indaba Steering Committee
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Advancing WISCom's work around pan-African Hub, WikiIndaba 2025, Africa Agenda and Africa Baraza
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-01-16 - 2026-02-15
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Regional (more than one country in the same continent or region) Africa
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Other (please specify) Pan-African Hub community engagement, WikiIndaba 2025, Africa Agenda and Afrika Baraza
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Poor community consultation on Hub conversation Many members of the African community are not in the loop when it comes to hub conversations in the Wikimedia space, including the hub conversations in Africa. WISCom will be organizing community engagements, to educate African community members on hubs, and the process taken so far when it comes to the Pan-African hub initiative. The engagements will include inviting African community members to interact with the pan-African hub framework draft, with the aim of having it adopted at WikiIndaba 2025 in Tanzania. WISCom will them move to put in the application for the pan-African hub pilot in 2026.
How do we promote community, projects and work on Africa Agenda? The African community has only WikiIndaba as the Africa-themed conference, and had made commitment during the WikiIndaba 2024 in Johannesburg, to not only use the WikiIndaba conference as a mere conference to share project updates, but also an avenue to work on the problems listed on the Africa Agenda and find solutions for them. This started with the inculcation of hack-a-thon to the WikiIndaba program, as Africans are always not represented in the global Wikimedia hack-a-thons. WISCom will be following up on deliberations and action plans around issues that emanate from the WikiIndaba 2025 conference, consulting the necessary stakeholders and WMF teams to ensure that such issues are resolved before the WikiIndaba 2026. We will follow up with the 2025 post-conference survey to gain insight from the conference participants, and ensure that a detailed conference grant report on the WikiIndaba 2025 is submitted in due time. Also, the journey for WikiIndaba 2026 starts immediately after the 2025 conference ends. The conference will be conceptualized based on the community engagement survey that will be launched after the WikiIndaba 2025 conference, and will be a step further into working on the problems as outlined on the Africa Agenda. This will be followed by the drafting and submission of the WikiIndaba 2026 conference grant application, announcement of the conference theme, announcement of organizing team, call for scholarships and program submissions, selection of successful applicants, etc. We plan to ensure progressive continuity between 2025 and 2026 WikiIndaba conferences.
Where do Africans converge outside WikiIndaba? WikiIndaba happens to be the only African themed conference where Africans get the opportunity to discuss projects and get updates. This gave birth to Afrika Baraza as conceptualized by Movement Communications team and WISCom, to give African Wikimedia community members more opportunity to discuss, get updates and interface with global trends within the Wikimedia movement. WISCom plans to host at least one Afrika Baraza session every quarter to enable African community stakeholders to meet outside the WikiIndaba conference arrangement as we work to keep our community informed of the happenings in the community and also provide them a platform where they bring issues to our notice as we strategize on how to resolve them.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
Community support and engagement Organizing meetings, conferences, and community events Supporting community members' participation in events and conferences
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
Ceslause Ogbonnaya: Ceslause Ogbonnaya (User:Ceslause) is the WISCom Executive Coordinator. He takes lead on WISCom programs while supported by WISCom members who are volunteers.
Bobby Shabangu: Bobby Shabangu (User:Bobbyshabangu) serves as chair of the WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom). He has also served on the board of Wikimedia ZA. As WIScom chair, he co-founded Afrika Baraza, a platform for Africans to connect, collaborate, and share skills across the continent. He has actively participated in the development and implementation of the movement strategy 2030 especially in the African continent through facilitating the Movement Strategy Salons.
Jael Boateng: Jael Boateng (User:Jael28) represents Ghana on WISCom. She is currently the Executive Director of Open Foundation West Africa. With a strong background in Management and Human Resource Strategy, her experience comes in the various WISCom programs, as they are all community-focused.
Youssef Ben Haj Yahia represents Tunisia on WISCom. As a former member in Carthagina Organization, and MedinaPedia Project, he brings unique knowledge on how WISCom should plan its projects to have the best impact on the community.
Details on the rest of WISCom members can be found here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba_Steering_Committee.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
EARTH hub, West Africa Hub, Great Lakes Hub, Africa Wiki Women, Central Africa Hub and Africa Wikimedia communities
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
As the steering committee, planning and execution of Wiki Indaba conference is WISCom's core mandate.
WISCom was made the custodian of Africa Agenda at the WikiIndaba 2022 in Kigali, which was also where the idea of Afrika Baraza was conceptualized by WISCom and Movement Comms. More on Africa Agenda and Afrika Baraza can be found here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Afrika_Baraza.
We had a series of meetings on the pan-African hub framework with African community stakeholders. Proof can be found here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pan-African_Hub_Framework_Drafting/Drafting_Process.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geography
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Other
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geographic
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
We would love to learn how our work improves the contribution, experience and learning of Africans in strategy discussions in the Wikimedia space, especially around hubs. We also want to improve the WikiIndaba 2025 conference experience for all attendees and how it impacts them and their volunteer work in the movement.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 200 | WikiIndaba 2025 Afrika Baraza pre-conference: 50 participants
WikiIndaba 2025: 100 participants WikiIndaba 2025 Africa Agenda strategy sessions: 50 participants |
| Number of editors | 30 | 30 editors for WikiIndaba 2025 hackathon |
| Number of organizers | 3 | Three organizing communities for WikiIndaba 2025 Hackathon satellite event |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |
| Wikimedia Commons | |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
There will be technical contributions at the WikiIndaba 2025 hackathon, as well as some Translatewiki contributions. Some of them will be;
- Design mock-ups for web apps,desktop apps and mobile apps.
- Userscripts
- web apps
- extensions
- gadgets
- tool documentation (web apps, user scripts and other tools as well)
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open 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 |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
We will conduct a survey, monitor the number of attendees both online and offline and document the track the hackathon contributions
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q85kBwdwHgGa84TLr3DvAXGwmh2RQ8w4CsOqk2K5IL8/edit?usp=sharing
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
86580 ZAR
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
5000 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).