Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Open Foundation West Africa/2019-2020

Simple APG committee recommendation

We recommend that Open Foundation West Africa receive a grant for US$74,730.61. OFWA has been developing a wide array of programs in the past year, and their new plan is building upon their successes while learning from past challenges.

We are looking forward to seeing how OFWA continues their activities, especially how they grow their network of partners and their outreach efforts across Ghana. We particularly appreciate their Education programs and their Wikiclubs model which have brought in new volunteers, as we understand that volunteering is a challenge in their local context. OFWA's programmatic plan is very dense this year, with a lot of activities, especially many campaigns, and we would like to emphasize the importance of OFWA streamlining their organizational support to those programs to find synergies and not stretch their own resources.

We are looking forward to seeing how OFWA will develop this year, especially how they will continue to partner with relevant actors in their context to support Ghanaian initiatives around free and open knowledge, as well as be a steady working partner for other Wikimedia affiliates and groups on the African continent.

On behalf of the sAPG team, Philip Kopetzky (talk) 15:45, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Grant approved

We support the committee's recommendation to grant Open Foundation West Africa US$74,730.61 for 12 months (+ 10% contingency if needed - 82203.67 USD), from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020.

Open Knowledge Foundation West Africa (OFWA) is in its second Annual Plan Grant and has done a great deal of work to support local communities through various programs strands. The GLAM and content creation program is composed of many campaigns, and we would like to emphasize the committee's recommendation to ensure that such campaigns are supported with the right amount of resources, so as not to stretch both staff and volunteer support. The Ghana QR project is an interesting take on how to motivate contributors to better the quality of Wikipedia articles, by bringing Wikipedia articles to public spaces. Their very own Wiki loves Festivals is an interesting variation on the Wiki Loves model and their goal of recording living culture is interesting in a strategic context of including knowledge that has been disregarded in the WIkimedia projects. OFWA's education program is ambitious and well supported by Wikiclubs. Awareness and outreach is a great part of OFWA's programmatic activities, and they are successfully exploring various methods of bringing new contributors to the Wikimedia projects, through Wiki contests and debates, Online thematic campaigns (especially around bridging the knowledge gap) and the Kiwix Outreach program.

OFWA intends to evaluate its activities through a great number of indicators. There are many targets and sometimes they are not directly linked with clear program objectives. We are looking forward to working with OFWA to refine their evaluation framework in the months to come, so as to make sure that they can track their results effectively. The number and type of indicators however show a real will to support the development of the organization and its programs through thorough evaluation and reflection.

This year, OFWA is asking for funds to open an office, which will help them to be a more visible outlined point of contact for institutional and other partners as well as provide an anchor for staff to support community members more effectively.

Overall, OFWA programs are aimed at supporting communities and quality content about Ghana, bringing in new contributors and participants to their activities, while paying attention to fostering diversity (geography, gender, technical contributions…). One of their strengths is taking advantage of partnerships with a diverse corpus of organizations, such as their partnership with Transforming Teacher Education & Learning in Ghana to organize the Ghana Educators Forum or the Media Foundation for West Africa to organize the Ghana Media forum.

We are looking forward to this next step in the organization's development and look forward to work this year with OFWA and learn more from their achievements in that region.

Congratulations on this grant and we are looking forward to working with you this year again!

Delphine (WMF) (talk) 20:56, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

Clarity on remaining funds from 2019-2020

Hello, noting here that there was a miscalculation of remaining funds from Annual Plan 2019-2020 by WMF. Since the final budget for this grant included a contingency amount (US$7,473.06) that was not needed and which WMF ultimately did not send, the actual remaining funds from this grant should have been US$21,592.89. US$9,341.31 of this underspend were reallocated towards Annual Plan 2020-2021. However, $19,724,64 was deducted from Annual Plan 2020-2021 instead of $12,251.58. As a result, partial unused funds from Annual Plan 2019 were reallocated to make up for the unsent contingency amount, and the remaining portion of unused funds will be reallocated towards OFWA's upcoming 2022 Community Fund.

Many thanks to Rberchie and the OFWA team for working with us to resolve and reconcile these grants. If I have missed any information, please don't hesitate contact us at grantsadminwikimedia.org. Thank you -- Morgan Jue (WMF) (talk) 22:07, 20 December 2021 (UTC)