Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wiki In Africa’s exciting program of activities over 2022/Final Report

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Final Learning Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 2023-02-15T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Final

Application Midpoint Learning Report

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General information[edit]

This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results. See the midpoint report if you want to review the midpoint results.

  • Name of Organization: Wiki in Africa
  • Title of Proposal: Wiki In Africa’s exciting program of activities over 2022
  • Amount awarded: 135300 USD, 2060700 ZAR
  • Amount spent: 1986339 ZAR

Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]

1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.

The key factors that contributed to an exciting and successful 2022 for Wiki In Africa were:
1. The organisational security afforded by the Community Resources GSF ensured a proactive, less reactive approach to project planning, implementation and documentation.
2. The larger team (2 principals, 1 retained from 2021, 3 newbies) worked strategically to build, cross communicate and develop opportunities for the various projects.
3. The larger team required training (requiring a longer process). The 4 additional efficient staff assisted with the day-to-day activities, ensuring that the 2 leads could think more strategically and begin to tackle previously un-prioritised elements.
4. More focus on our activities allowed for better articulation of the issues, better communications ‘externally’ to create visibility and attract newbies, and ‘internally’ (Wikimedia Community) to ensure better engagement with and support for the wikimedia communities, resulting in increased participation, e.g. 32 communities joining Wiki Loves Africa (an all time high).
5. The principals could concentrate on organisational processes, future governance, securing funds against exchange rate fluctuations, and consolidated reporting.
6. We felt secure enough as an organisation to formally offer structured fiscal sponsorship for WM organisations.

This proactive approach is being extended to and consolidated in 2023. Beyond the WMF’s GSF, WikiChallenge Écoles d’Afrique celebrated its 5th year of hosting the Orange Foundation-supported primary school drive. The team successfully launched Wiki Loves Women’s Inspiring Open podcast (supported by Goethe-Institut) as a platform for Africa’s successful women to be “heard”. The ISA Tool received development supported from Wikimedia Sweden. We negotiated an external partnership with African Tech Radio, and supported Wikimedia initiatives, such as WMF’s Let’s Connect and Organisers Lab, and Wiki Indaba (partner and co-host of hybrid sessions).

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?

The application for 2022 outlined key goals that we wanted to achieve over the year. We believe that the dial has been successfully moved forward on all these goals, for example:
  • We encouraged, supported and guided communities and volunteers in their participation of Wiki Loves Africa, ISA, SheSaid and other drives. Multiple office hours, webinars, and training sessions were involved. Telegram channels were alight with conversations and sharing skills – big and small.
  • As a team we made sure to share our experiences, challenges and solutions with the wider Wikimedia and open communities, notably Let’s Connect and the Organisers Lab, as well as WikiIndaba, Francophone Convention, WikiArabia, and the OEGlobal Conference.
  • We provided logistical support for the WikiIndaba 2022 hybrid sessions.
  • For the leadership training sessions of SheSaid, we invited key topic experts to share their knowledge from outside of the Wikimedia movement and outside Africa,
  • External exposure to the open movement was approached with the launch of Inspiring Open podcast (which featured women from across the Open movement) and the content partnership with Africa Tech Radio.
  • A photographer tips and tricks section was added to the WLA website, and guidelines for quality depict submissions added to Commons.
  • WikiChallenge Écoles d’Afrique hosted a highly successful 5th edition of the Francophone writing drive aimed at school children. It resulted in 80 articles and 442 photos, drawings and videos submitted by students from 69 schools in 9 African countries.
  • WikiAfrica Hour has again been the monthly peak where the community can hear about and discuss key issues facing the movement, and get access to movement-wide news.

The list goes on! But what is vitally important across all these strategies is to ensure reciprocation, sharing, collaboration and support for the African and wider community. Together, we go further.

3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?

The key innovation that Wiki In Africa excels in is the multi-layered nature of all their interventions. Built into each project, drive or intervention is a range of strategic actions that help to move the movement and community forward across Africa. Here are just a few examples:
  • Inspiring Open is about giving Africa’s successful open-focused women a voice to share their journeys and inspire others. It also is a platform that now provides citable material to write articles about these women on a continent where women are under-represented in the media in three crucial ways: as journalists, as experts to profile and as the subjects of articles.
  • Wiki Loves Africa is ostensibly about visibility and content acquisition, but its great value to the movement is its training ground for community organisers to build their skills and network. In addition, over the years, it has also helped to launch the photographic careers of many participants.
  • Wiki Loves Women’s Focus Group is about leadership training, but the growing bond, connection and network between the group members is the true strength of the project;
  • Wiki Loves Women’s SheSaid drive is about contributing women’s voices to Wikiquote. The drive helps to draw attention to a smaller contribution request while transferring key event management (including funding) for organisers and skills to excited new contributors.


From an organisational and administrative perspective, our position based in Africa provides both positive and negative reasons behind innovation. An example is:

  • Our position as an organisation in South Africa allows more flexibility to fund and support communities in countries under international restrictions which cannot be supported by a US based organisation. Because of this, we have been able to provide fiscal sponsorship for Wikimedia work in Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Mali. However, this fund is subject to the extreme exchange rate fluctuations of South Africa and the receiving countries.

4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.

Our project-focused communications generates visibility and activates the WM community. Each project involves different interest groups through a range of channels. Below are examples of types of communications, interventions and tactics:
  • Wiki Loves Africa’s active communities increased to 32 hosting 37 in-person events. Several communities participated from 2 countries, requiring dialogue between groups about overlap, photo identification and national prizes
  • All WLA groups were supported through the Office Hours, where they could ask questions and share ideas as they needed. There were 6 formal training sessions
  • For WLW Focus Group ensured that key group-determined topics are presented, explained and discussed with key experts (external to group and WM). These presentations (without the discussions) are shared on our YouTube channel
  • The scheduled monthly WikiAfrica Hour focuses on topics of value to African Wikimedians. The live format presents key information and the differing perspectives of the guests. It also encourages the viewing audience to digest, question and challenge what is said. By Dec 2022, 19 episodes (+ 2 special editions) had hosted 71 guests. YouTube Episodes have been watched 5,082 times

Communications tactics:

  • Separate monthly newsletter in English and French are sent out to 3189 subscribers
  • WLA has tailored communications to photography and media professionals, and social media engagement program targeting Africa’s photographers
  • SheSaid or ISA Tell Us About Her drives activated through alerts and discussions on the Gender Gap and WikiWomen Telegram groups
  • Opportunities or calls shared on African Wikimedians Telegram and FB group
  • WLW Focus Group closed Telegram group facilitates discussions, calls for help, shared achievements, validated experiences, questions, spot polls, etc.
  • Wiki Loves Africa Organisers Telegram group activates discussions
  • Inspiring Open social media visibility campaign leveraged each guests’ networks

5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
The full documentation of all Wiki In Africa project impact and stories can be found here: https://w.wiki/6KbK


All Wiki In Africa stories and news across all projects can be found here: https://www.wikiinafrica.org/news/ All newsletters accessed here: https://www.wikiinafrica.org/newsletters/


Wiki In Africa’s five closing highlights of 2022 were:

1. Wiki Loves Africa: 8 years and 89,000+ images + WLA image placed 3rd as 2021 POTY.
2. Inspiring Open: a season featuring 16 phenomenal women from Africa!
3. WikiChallenge African Schools celebrates its five years at Biennale de Dakar!
4. Save the date for the African Knowledge Initiative (AKI): African Environment
5. Planning 3 years ahead!

The full story can be found here: https://control.mailblaze.com/index.php/campaigns/ql3308cs0y05f

Bonus story: The Wiki Loves Africa Quality Image sub-focus has reaped incredible results. Every year, a team checks images (https://w.wiki/6KdY) to ensure that copyvios are weeded out of the entries. A few years ago, we began another sub-focus to celebrate quality images (https://w.wiki/6KdZ) beyond the small ‘pool’ of winners.

We believe this resulted in two WLA-entered images being nominated for the shortlist, and one placing 3rd, in 2021 Wikimedia Commons Best Image of the Year! (https://w.wiki/5xTv)

6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Strongly agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Strongly agree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. Strongly agree

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

We work with African and gender-focused communities to ensure that their voices, cultures, experiences, and interests are represented on the Wikimedia platforms. Our Theory of Change (https://w.wiki/6KbN) has honed the community engagement, focus, and resulting impact for our projects.

Every community faces different challenges. Some are ongoing – electrical supply, data access, and political instability. Others are unexpected, eg. in the case of a SheSaid community (Ukraine), war. We ensure that our projects are multifaceted; where participation is on the terms of that community or individual. We also ensure that our programs add value to the WM project it supports.

WLW's SheSaid is important as it: a. makes visible the lack of coverage of women on Wikiquote, b. encourages communities to use SheSaid to train contributors through smaller asks that engender pride in their own heroines, c. encourages language projects to self-organize (according to their context) to foster reader and editor pride for female experts and women in their own countries, and share the words of global trailblazing women, d. supports the neglected Wikiquote community by drawing new editors, e. supports the Wikiquote community by

i. Creates Wikidata queries to show notable women, per country, who are not featured on Wikiquote but have a presence on Wikipedia: https://w.wiki/6Kex
ii. Develops tracking tools and metrics specifically for wikiquote ( adaptable for similar drives) https://w.wiki/6Kew

Part 2: Your main learning[edit]

8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?

For Wiki Loves Women, we surveyed the current members. There were a number of key findings and important feedback (https://w.wiki/6Kf7) that has helped us to better shape the 2023 program and be able to confidently extend the invitation to new members. One Quote was:

“I would like to thank Wiki Loves women focus group organizers, they do all they can to keep going on, they provide constructive topics which are really necessary for us!”

With Wiki Loves Africa, we were keen to understand the contribution of photographers better. We have concentrated on highlighting quality images on Commons, and know that this is a requirement for focus during 2023. We are planning photographic masterclasses on a variety of skills and open topics.


In 2022, we significantly increased our training and support program for WLA Organisers, and this is reflected in the responses in the organisers interviews: “We benefited a lot from the International team. The office hours were very educative, especially for newcomers and first-time local organizers. We learnt a lot from the written communications that were sent out from time to time.” Read about how organiser feedback has influenced 2023 here: https://w.wiki/6KfA

For WikiChallenge African Schools, Afek and Florence did a range of interviews using the Flip platform. The teachers, organisers and children were interviewed. You can watch them here: https://flip.com/29d8edda

9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?

There are always unexpected elements that we need to counter. We love being confronted by the unexpected. It allows us to innovate and improve our projects.

During 2022, some of the organizers for the Wiki Loves Africa communities decided to not do national competitions, but rather concentrate on events with their own communities. This created some interesting challenges, most notably how each community would be able to identify “their community’s contributions” and how a national or community prize would be organised. These conversations were facilitated, and the communities worked it out together.

For the ISA Tool contests, we realised that participants were “cheating the system”. They worked out that if they marked one depict statement as a priority and saved, and then unmarked the same depict statement, it was counted as two contributions. They were also not providing quality depict options - placing “farm” instead of “fishery” or “tree” instead of “oak”. This led to us making clear rules with regard to the contest, and Florence creating the Depiction Guidelines (https://w.wiki/6Kdb).

For Wiki Loves Women’s global She Said drive, the English community reacted a bit negatively to the project, because some very new editors were a bit disruptive (did not read the rules in particular) and they felt there was too much post-editing clean-up. (https://w.wiki/6KfD). Through discussions on the talk page, we now have ideas on how to improve the contest for next year!

10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?

Since the beginning of the Wiki In Africa projects we have grown organically. Wiki In Africa projects are by design, multi-faceted, and complex. They work across a variety of different, but occasionally overlapping communities. They solve a range of issues, but each one is unique and has different metrics and impact indicators.

With the advent of new staff, it has become very important to look deeper into the systems and processes behind everything. Keeping track of these projects has mostly been kept in the heads and google droves of Anthere and Isla, but with new staff and a focus on scaling the project, these highly complex, community-focused projects now require less reactive action and more proactive planning and implementation. With a multi-year grant locked in, we can now concentrate on systems and processes, and workflows, with tasks, comms, community engagement, and metrics tracking built into it. It has also allowed us to build community feedback across all projects to ensure they are better supported in the next iteration of that project.

We’ve always worked on a Wiki Loves Africa Resources page (https://w.wiki/6Kf$) + a Wiki Loves Africa Results and best practices page (https://w.wiki/5T9Q). Over the last few years, this year especially, we have been more purposeful about sharing the resources we’ve used for each project with the community – e.g. new She Said resources (https://w.wiki/6Kg2).

11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?

In 2022, Wiki Loves Women launched Inspiring Open, a podcast series across 16 platforms. The podcasts created a safe space for African women who have achieved the top echelons of their professions, speak about their journeys, both personal and professional, whilst holding spaces for others through their open ethos. The collection features a breadth of accomplishments, from the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation to a librarian who started her career in the very library she, as a child, heard her first story (she is now a driving force at AFLiA). These 16 women are from diverse backgrounds, cultures and countries, were rarely privileged, and yet through their tenacity, hardwork and inspired creativity became some of Africa’s female leaders in their fields. (Listen here: https://w.wiki/6Kgt)

12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Insight, resources, and tools:

Results and best practices:

Further support for the community was begun in 2021, and then, with more experience in 2022, by offering volunteer groups and individuals Fiscal Sponsorship. These experiences have ensured that we could formalize the expectations of potential applicants and were able to provide operational feedback to WMF about contractual agreements, tracking systems, etc. which we believe are useful to the community at large and manage expectations (https://w.wiki/6LSh). It has also meant that we can anticipate and prepare for the administrative and fiscal impact of microfunding, as offered in 2023 through the African Environment project.

Part 3: Metrics[edit]

13a. Open and additional metrics data

Open Metrics
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
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 N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A Partly, ongoing. We find this hard to provide metrics on. For some projects, e.g. WLA we can see the percentage of newbies slowly dropping for WLA over the years, which means returning participants. But across the projects, this is difficult to quantify principally because we do not hold the data for participation to their events, Various - WLX tool on Toolforge + feedback narrative for SheSaid
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A Done, depending on the project. For WLA and SheSaid, the same communities (and new ones) get involved every year. We do not know if it will be the case of the Italian community next year though, given the recent treatment of Camelia Boban. various. feedback narrative for SheSaid + WLA organisers
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A N/A Achieved.

Retained 2 existing funders (WMF + Orange Foundation). Saw the return of support from 2 previous funders (WM Sw + Goethe-Institut). Continued support of WM and WMF initiatives and programs. Embarked on new partnership with Africa Tech Radio.

Relationships.
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors Wiki Loves Women Focus Group members feedback. We’ll seek advice from the Community Resources team on how to best do this. N/A N/A Done. Expectations and experience survey conducted Dec 22. Results: https://w.wiki/6Kf7 Google form. Results shared in a follow on workshop.
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications – new followers : 30% increase 30 N/A 105% Increase in new fans and followers across 10 platforms from Jan 2022-Jan2023. 53,794 fans and followers (Jan 2023) over 10 social media accounts. WLW Instagram was added to the Social Media stable this year. And more concerted effort was made to involve Linked In. The Twitter storm in late 2022, however did impact the stability of our followers on that platform with many accounts being migrated or deleted. Hootsuite analytics.
Number of activities developed N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

13b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants WLA participants = 1,500

Wikiquote participants = 9 x 20 ISA participants = 40 WAHour guests = 12 x 4 WLW Inspiring Open podcast guests = 12

1800 3961 WLA users who entered photographs = 1,111

WLA WPWP participants = 15 WLA ISA Campaign = 48 ISA: Featured Image = 22 WLW ISA: Tell Us About Her = 29 SheSaid Focus Group events = 141 SheSaid Wikiquote participants (min. estimate / hashtag tool) = 231 ISA Participants (2022) = 239 WAHour guests = 39 WLW Inspiring Open podcast guests = 16 WikiChallenge Participating Children (ave. based on 1 class of 30 kids per school)= 2070

WLA users entered photographs = BaGLAMa, GLAMourous, WLX tools

WLA WPWP participants =WPWP #WLA Hashtag tool WLA ISA Campaign = ISA inbuilt statistics ISA: Featured Image = ISA inbuilt statistics WLW ISA: Tell Us About Her = ISA inbuilt statistics SheSaid Focus Group events = WLW Focus Group: Results and best practices SheSaid Wikiquote participants (min. estimate/hashtag tool) = #SheSaid hashtag tracking ISA Participants (2022) = ISA inbuilt statistics WAHour guests = WikiAfrica Hour Report WLW Inspiring Open podcast guests = http://podcast.wikiloveswomen.org WikiChallenge Participating Children = 69 schools averaging 30 kids / 1 class

Number of editors WLA participants = 1,500

Wikiquote participants = 9 x 20 ISA participants = 40 WAHour guests = 12 x 4 WLW Inspiring Open podcast guests = 12

1800 3961 Below are the stats that we put in as a guess of what we would achieve. Essentially, it is very difficult for us to distinguish between editors and participants. For Wiki Loves Africa 72% of the entries are from 'newbies'. Wiki Loves Africa is one of the few projects we have where we can monitor the "newness" of the participating editor.

WLA participants = 1,500 Wikiquote participants = 9 x 20 ISA participants = 40 WAHour guests = 12 x 4 WLW Inspiring Open podcast guests = 12

Number of organizers WLA org team members = 21 x 3

WikiAfrica Heritage trained = 15 WLW Focus group members = 12 + 6 additional Note: it is nevertheless likely that some figures overlap between organizers WLW and organizers WLA...

96 224 WLA org team members = 96


WLW Focus Group SheSaid Event participants = 10
 WikiAfrica Heritage trained = 8 
WLW Focus group members = 14
 She Said participating communities (11 languages x 3 organisers) = 33
 ISA campaign creators (minus WIA drives) = 40
 WikiChallenge Organisers (Wikimedians + Liaisons + Teachers) = 20

WLA org team members = WLA Results and best practices: https://w.wiki/5T9Q

WLW Focus Group SheSaid Event participants = WLW FG 2022 Results and best practices: https://w.wiki/6KhA WikiAfrica Heritage trained = Wikiquote:SheSaid/SheSaid Africa WLW Focus group members = 12 + 2 + 3 presenters She Said participating communities (11 languages x 3 organisers) = SheSaid hashtag tracking ISA campaign creators (minus WIA drives) = ISA inbuilt statistics WikiChallenge Organisers (Wikimedians + Liaisons + Teachers) = 10 countries (facilitators, wikimedians, global)

Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikimedia Commons Images collected through Wiki Loves Africa photo contest 8000 16265 Wiki Loves Africa images = 16,265 Wiki Loves Africa images = glamtools.toolforge.org/baglama2/#gid=1002
Wikiquote Wiki Loves Women she said entries 400 9528 WLW SheSaid - edits (min est. / hashtag tool) = 9,528 WLW Focus Group SheSaid Events = WLW Focus Group 2022 Results and best practices: https://w.wiki/6KhA

WLW SheSaid - edits (min. estimate /hashtag tool) = SheSaid hashtag tracking

Wikimedia Commons ISA descriptions and captions added 50000 171679 ISA: Wiki Loves Africa = 95,413

ISA: Featured Image = 14,718 WLW ISA: Tell Us About Her = 7,414 ISA Contributions (minus WIA projects above) = 54,134

ISA: Wiki Loves Africa = ISA inbuilt statistics

ISA: Featured Image = ISA inbuilt statistics WLW ISA: Tell Us About Her = ISA inbuilt statistics ISA Contributions (minus WIA drives detailed above) = ISA inbuilt statistics

Wikipedia WPWP-WLA edits ( revisions + pages modified) 100 1822 WPWP: Wiki Loves Africa = 1,822 WPWP: Wiki Loves Africa = WPWP #WLA Hashtag tool
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

Yes

15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.

Several of the tools we were used to are down (or were down at some point during the year)

Examples: hashtag tool. Currently, Baglama2 is not working anymore. This is a critical problem for almost all GLAM and cultural projects.

16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships[edit]

17. Organizational Capacity

Organizational capacity dimension
A. Financial capacity and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
B. Conflict management or transformation This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it
C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
D. Partnership building This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
E. Strategic planning This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
F. Program design, implementation, and management This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
J. Governance This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
K. Communications, marketing, and social media This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
M. On-wiki technical skills This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
N. Accessing and using data This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
O. Evaluating and learning from our work This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders
N/A
N/A

17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Formal training provided from outside the Wikimedia Movement, Using capacity building/training resources onlinee from sources OUTSIDE the Wikimedia Movement, Using capacity building/training resources online from sources WITHIN the Wikimedia Movement

17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Lack of staff time to participate in capacity building/training, Barriers to access training because of language, Other

18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?

Wiki In Africa sits in an unusual non-profit space. It is registered in South Africa but operates across the continent. Very few funders cover education on a regional or continental level, and hardly any funders believe the representation of Africa on international platforms is a priority. The pot is small; the pool of funders is smaller.

For a long time, we have been focused on Wikimedia Communities. However, our projects answer some of the critical education and access issues facing the African continent. Successful funding is about relationships. We are not situated where we can foster those relationships easily. We need help (advice) to ensure that we approach the right people at the right foundations. We'd be grateful for guidance in this area.

19. Partnerships over the funding period.

Over the fund period...
A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) Strongly agree
B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree

19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Permanent staff outreach, Partners proactive interest, Other

19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Difficulties specific to our context that hindered partnerships, Lack of staff to conduct outreach to new strategic partners, Lack of knowledge or capacities to reach out to strategic partners

20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?

High-profile organizations, particularly relating to visibility and accreditation for all partners, are difficult. Even after 6 years of collaboration, Wiki in Africa often becomes “invisible” at WikiChallenge Ecoles d’Afrique events or press releases. It takes constant vigilance so we are not presented as a service provider. This happens every year despite reminders and clearly crafted agreements.

Additionally, external institutional partners only acknowledge a relationship as a partnership if that partner spends money on the project. Hours of volunteer participation are not viewed as a “cost”. Wikimedia editors are not valued and the contributions of Wiki In Africa are seen as “easy to implement” – not valuable enough for partnership status. Happy to share specifics (not publicly).

Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration[edit]

21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?

We feel that we belong to the Wikimedia movement. We are dedicated to ensuring that our work is relevant to the Wikimedia movement. We are inextricably linked to, work within, partner with, and share freely with communities across the Wikimedia movement. Sadly, this is not always reciprocated as we are not always perceived as ‘Wikimedia enough’ by some Wikimedia Communities (see 17b).

We ensure we are part of the greater aligned open movement, and partner with, and share knowledge with, the Creative Commons and Open Education movements, i.e. regular attendance and presentations at Creative Commons Summits, OEGlobal Conferences, and a keynote was given at Open Street Maps Africa conference.

We are also aware that, as an organisation, our projects pose specific solutions for some of the key access, education, and knowledge challenges facing Africa. We intentionally leverage partnerships and alliances outside the Open movement, e.g. the Inspiring Open podcast series.

22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Stayed the same

23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

It is usual for us to share our findings and experiences at Wikimania, Wikimedia Summit, WIkiIndaba, and all other Wikimedia gatherings.

However in 2022, although ALL 5 of our submissions for Wikimania were rejected, we shared with formalised leadership programs instigated by the WMF – such as the Diversity and Inclusion onboarding for WMF Community Fund Committees, the Let’s Connect program, and Organisers Lab. All of these, along with the more tool or experience focused sharing we have embarked on this year, have allowed us to feel that our knowledge is benefiting beyond our usual Africa audience.

However, several experiences were counter-validating (see q. 17b). One of which being refused to be part of the Wikimedia Executive Director group, where we feel we belong.

24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Somewhat increased

25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

Our sense of personal commitment to the WM movement has always been very strong. Having staff and seeing them grow and develop adds a different dimension to our sense of purpose. It’s been rejuvenating to be part of a growing team; to see their ideas for our projects come to fruition and their confidence build.

26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.

African Narrative and Pan-Africanism - you cannot be involved in showcasing and platforming Africa’s many voices without being involved in these movements in some way.


Feminist and gender-equity movement - Wiki Loves Women … ! Open Education - WikiFundi, WikiChallenge African Schools, etc.


Climate Justice - watch this space in 2023 - with both Wiki Loves Africa and Africa Environment WikiFocus.

Florence started working on a 20% time for WIPO in February 2022. This gave her plenty of opportunities for direct contributions to the main space on Wikipedia. Whilst it is not “support to a movement”, it played a good role in her motivation to contribute to Wikipedia in 2022 :)

Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration[edit]

We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.

27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Yes

27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?

Yes, see 16b for specifics

28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?

We do this regularly (at least once a month)

29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?

Nothing formal … outside of Let’s Connect, Organisers Lab, and WMF Grants sharing sessions. Otherwise, we do make sure to share all our lessons and outcomes (along with opportunities) several times per month through various programs. Platforms we use to share our lessons and outcomes (along with opportunities and WM news) to the WM Community are:
  • Wiki Africa Hour
  • Wiki in Africa newsletter
  • on mailing lists
  • blog posts (on DIFF or elsewhere)
  • on telegram, facebook, youtube, twitter, instagram
  • during wikimedia conferences

Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]

30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

1986339

31. Local currency type

ZAR

32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uCf1MJCpyrChWG3cLK7aNAWZuXqd-1sZy9saxtGX7Ho/edit?usp=sharing

33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

No significant changes in the budget compared to the original proposal except for our decision to hire an administrative assistant (and oh God, it was such a good move...)

34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?

34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

N/A

34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

N/A

34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?

As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

Yes

38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.

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