Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Nigerian Wikimedians For Sustainable Development Campus Tour 2.0

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello , Nigeria Wikimedians for Sustainable Development Team,

Thank you for submitting your application. We found your proposal to be well written and acknowledge the value of the proposed impact in terms of its focus on issues of development and sustainability. To support us in the next stage of review and decision making, please see our comments and questions;

• We find the project to be highly costed and not commensurate to the scope of the project and taking into account the ; proposed impact outcomes, the project period and the number of people involved in the project.
• We are keen on understanding why you have so many organizers for a project of these scope?
• Please share with us past project reports that speak to work you have implemented before related to this issue. Would you share the outcomes and outputs of the last tour? How about the change in content creation and consumption - can we see where you are tracking the data?

• How many new articles on the SDG’s do you plan to create ?
• You mentioned  in the metrics that you will have one strategic partner that contributes to long-term growth, diversity and sustainability: FEGI. We are keen to know why you will not consider partnering with all the other local partners you listed in the proposal (YALI Network, AIESEC, JCI, ROTARACT, GLOBAL SHAPERS)?
• How are you going to ensure quality of engagement with all participants in your program? Do you have a participant journey you can share with us?
• Please review your learning questions - we find there is a misalignment between them and the metrics.
• Please share a further breakdown of the costs - we are keen on learning on the cost per university.
• We notice that you have an interest in training people to translate content to Yoruba yet, in the organizers see no Yoruba speaking organizer. Would you say more on this?
• We are keen to know how you will ensure the project doesn’t affect other UG/hub activities and no duplication of efforts?
• We understand that there are already quite a number of existing fan clubs, would you say more to the need of creating new ones and not working with existing ones?
• Would you speak to the plan to coordinate and collaborate with existing communities in Nigeria?
• We see you plan to work with 10 universities - would you speak to the rationale of working with 10 and not 2 for instance - and what are your thoughts on the perception that you are spreading yourself too thin?

As always we recommend meeting with the regional program officer to support you in providing any clarity needed with the feedback shared here. The committee is also available to meet and join the call if that would be meaningful for you - just let the program officer know.

Thank you so much and we continue to appreciate your work and role in advancing the mission of the movement.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff , VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 07:09, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

Dear Veronica,

First, regarding the number of organizers we have, we do understand your concerns concerning the size. We arrive at that number of organizers as we consider that the project will take place in different states and regions (in Nigeria) and the toil will take on a smaller number of organizers and knowing that these institutions are spread out in different regions of the country we deemed it best to have people within identified region organizing without the core team having to be physically present at the locations. For instance, we selected 3 experienced editors in the Igbo community to organize for the Igbo region as well as for the Hausa community to organise for the Hausa region.

For past project, the links below give an account of the activities that took place in the last campus tour involving 3 universities. First is the project meta page

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_SDGs_Campus_Tour

This next link contains other information including the universities, date of events, and dashboards tracking activities of each contribution in each campus.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Wiki_Loves_SDGs_Campus_Tour

Link to the report:

https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Prithee_P/Wiki_Loves_SDGs_Campus_Tour/Report

On the question of strategic partnership, we weren't clear enough with the information that we put out as we do not only intend to work with FEGI alone but all other local partners mentioned such as YALI network, JCI, Rotaract, etc

For translation to Yoruba contents, we did intend to get someone to organize for the Yoruba but we found out that the trainers were located in Lagos and hosting an event that the state would about to duplication of effort and needless as there is a strong and active Yoruba community there. We had leave the Yoruba translation and changes will be made in the Fluxx application.

On the subject matter of quality of engagement, we do understand it will be difficult to cater to the participants that is a major reason we had to involve more organizers to make engagement with participants easier especially in languages like Igbo and Hausa.

For each region these organizers will create online group chats where questions can be answered and further help will be provided. This will ensure that no participant will be left unattended after the physical meeting. In these online groups, further training and resources will be provided to the participants.

Besides, we chose physical training first because we understand that people learn more in person than online. The journey of the participant begins with physical training where the basics of Wikipedia editing will be taught with a session for edit-a-thon to allow them to practice as this will help them retain knowledge better. Because we also understand that they won't fully understand everything as with every learning the online groups will allow these participants to ask questions and seek further clarifications on areas they may need help. These groups will provide a platform for further interaction between the participants and organizers.

As I stated in the proposal, I intend to work with the leadership of user groups such as Igbo and Hausa. Discussion has been ongoing concerning this and we have received approval to go ahead. These are the measures to ensure that we are in alignment and there is no duplication of efforts as regards this project.

On fan clubs based information available to us we can confirm that at most there are less than 10 fan clubs in tertiary institutions in Nigeria but the existing number of Universities, Polytechnics etc are over 200 and counting. There is still a wide gap for the majority of tertiary education campuses that Wikipedia presence is yet to be in. The present number of existing fan clubs are like drops in the ocean so there is a great need for the establishment of new fan clubs across the country. This is to support the plan through the efforts that are being put together.

On coordination with existing communities, our goal is not to do this alone and for this to be sustainable other stakeholders and communities such as the Hausa and Igbo and Nigeria user groups must be fully involved. As I said earlier, discussions are been made in this regard to help integrate these new participants into the existing communities already available.

Finally, as to the rationale for working with 10 universities and not less. Because this is not our first campus tour and in the first, we started with just 3 universities and we recorded huge level of successes, we decided to move on to a higher number and we engaged more organizers than we had due to the nature of this new project. Also, we want to put in our program in perspective and also work in alignment with the foundation’s goal of cohesion and collaboration among several communities.

We took into account that we will not be able to do it ourselves and that we need more hands to handle a project of this size.

Finally, I have prepared a breakdown of the budget per university

BUDGET FOR EACH SCHOOL

• Food and drinks = $10 for 2 days x 40 participants = $800
• Internet for participants = $652.2
• Event space rental = $150 x 2 days = $300
• Souvenirs (writing pads and pens) = $3.91 x 40 participants
• Gift vouchers for top participants = $150
• Projector and Camera rentals = $80.4
• Communications = $20

There are other additional things included in the budget for which the break down is given.

Breakdown of others

• Internet for core team and organizers = $800
• Monthly stipends for core team = $108.7 x 5 persons x 6 months = $3261
• Roll-up banners = $65 x 2 banners = $130
• Local travels for organizers = $1521
• Hotel accommodation for organizers = $1304

NOTE: There has been a slight alteration in the original budget amount as there was a calculation error in event space rental.

I hope I have been able to give satisfactory answers to the questions that were asked. If there are any other questions I am open to giving answers if need be.

Thank you for your time and patience.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

Godstime Elijah Godstime Elijah (talk) 06:25, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Hello Veronica,

In one of your mail you ask to inform on changes made to the budget. Please find the details with regard to the changes made.

Projector/camera - $500

Admin - $2100

Travels - $927

Hotels - $700

Communications - $200

Internet team - $500

Internet participants - $5000

Gift vouchers - $600

Event Space - $2500

Feeding - $4800

Souvenirs - $1043

Roll up banners - $130

Below is the summary of the previous budget requested

Projector/camera - $804

Admin - $3261

Travels - $1521

Hotels - $1304

WMF - $2000

Communications - $200

Internet team - $800

Internet participants - $6522

Gift vouchers - $600

Event Space - $3000

Feeding - $8000

Souvenirs - $1565

Roll up banners - $130 Godstime Elijah (talk) 09:18, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund Approved in the amount of 20,000 USD

Dear, Nigerians Wikimedians for Sustainable Development,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed your application and approved funding in the amount of $20,000 + fiscal sponsor fee for the period of July 2023 - December 2023.

As shared before on email and having an opportunity to discuss with you ; We appreciate you taking the time to share your responses to our questions and after reviewing and discussing your application further, share the following recommendations; While we find the project useful and meaningful in growing the community, we find it important that you take time to reflect on how the groups you engage will be supported beyond your contact. This needs to be in a meaningful and sustainable manner and aligned with the philosophy of the movement. We also would like you to invest in documentation of the engagement and especially the learning, evaluation and sharing elements of the project. We believe given the scope of the project and the recommended resources the project can still be implemented. Lastly, it is important that you put in place improved operational structures and specifically the financial reporting and documentation - please use proper and standard ways of expenditure reporting and documentation. Overall, we hope the project will be implemented in a thoughtful and thorough fashion and where possible , stories can be shared to speak to the progress being made.

We hope this feedback and recommendations are useful in guiding your work now and in the future. Thank you for your contribution to the movement ; we value you as a community and partner in the movement and remain committed to ensuring you are supported in your work.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and staff , --Aristidek5maya (talk) 14:07, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Final report extension

Hello! As communicated over email, due to activities scheduled to take place in February 2024, the end date for this General Support Fund project will be extended to 1 March 2024, and the final report will be due 30 days aftwards, which is 31 March 2024. If more time is needed to complete the report, please make a request as soon as possible on this page. Many thanks -- Morgan Jue (WMF) (talk) 21:39, 5 February 2024 (UTC)