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WikiCred/2022 CFP/Wiki4Climate Nigeria

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Wiki4Climate Nigeria
A WikiCred 2022 Grant Proposal
Project TypeEvent
AuthorPópóọlá Olúwadámiláre James
(James Moore200)
Contactpopoolaojames(_AT_)gmail.com
Requested amount9,650 USD
Award amountUnknown
What is your idea?

It is without any doubt that Climate and environmental activists, institutions and other bodies have little or no prior knowledge on how exceptional persons and their activities can help make Wikimedia a better place all in an attempt to bridge this gap on the environment. This will be done in collaboration with top climate change focused organisations in Nigeria some of which are Climate Wednesday, Solution17ForClimate, Young African Leaders Initiative, Global Shapers etc.

The idea is to recruit climate change or environmental activists, equip them with the resources and support needed to be able to contribute to Wikimedia projects specifically in the area of climate change. There are less professional editors in this area in Nigeria from past experiences which tells there is a huge problem that needs attention.

This project aim is to solve identified problem around paucity of professional editors in the area of climate, environmental issues among several inevitable

  • Recruit new editors (Institutions and Individuals)
  • Increase skills for translating Human rights related articles into Nigerian local languages: Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo
  • Create and improve WikiData items on climate topics.
  • Increase skills for existing editors on Human rights, institutions and climate topics,healthy natural systems.
  • Add or improve and create content on climate topics.
  • Making some uploads to Wikicommons
  • Prepare participants to join the global #WikiForHumanRights 2023 campaign which will also lead to #EarthDay Celebration in 2023.
  • Build Partnership with non-Wiki communities in Nigeria


Why is it important?

“If we want to avoid misinformation and fill information gaps it's our responsibility to ensure that people going to Wikipedia are finding robust and accessible information” said Katharine Vincent (Kulima Integrated Development Solutions) in the webinar: How to contribute climate change information to Wikipedia. see here

There have been 87 million pageviews of climate change related Wikipedia pages over the past year, which is over 238,000 page views a day. These numbers clearly illustrate the power of Wikipedia and the importance of ensuring that climate change information on Wikipedia is representative of the global knowledge on climate change, in particular ensuring more contributors and content from the Global South. This project in Nigeria is a spearheading project in a good direction for others to follow.


It is no news that climate change is experienced more rapidly than ever before. In the continuous battle with the climate crisis, it is important to build knowledge and information that support climate action. For example, Nigeria has seen severe flooding episodes in recent times leaving many displaced and properties destroyed. This among others provide an opportunity to ensure information about these occurrences and their accompanying impacts are properly represented in the digital space, particularly on wikimedia projects where they are scarce. This could serve a lot of purposes particularly for youth climate activists, campaigners, decision makers and educators in Nigeria working to tackle the menace caused by climate change.


Link(s) to your resume or anything else (CV, GitHub, etc.) that may be relevant
https://w.wiki/46fa
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespopoola
https://docs.google.com/file/d/11Vo_BY8B4kmFp9_d22NoUJ_bbsfo0qv7/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword


Is your project already in progress?

It is not in progress yet, however, the initiative is one the project that has been has been implemented in the wider movement by renowned Wikimedians from Wikimedians for Sustainable Development Usergroup and saw a lot of immense impact from their 2020 online activity that engaged climate professionals from different countries. But this aimed at local contributors. This idea was then spurred to reach an ever bigger impact for Nigeria in terms of content and people. However, Since mid last year 2021, I have collaboratively co-pioneer a popular global campaign in Nigeria which is WikiForHumanRights Campaign 2021 and 2022 in Nigeria under theme, “Right to A Healthy Environment”

The Start date will be 25th January 2022 till 25th July 2022.


How is this project relevant to credibility and Wikipedia?

Matters that involve Sustainable Development especially Climate change, issues or action would be best tackled by people with the experience and would not be leading to a setback.


What is the ultimate impact of this project?

We would be able to train 100 Climate change activists across 4 States (Lagos, Abuja, Imo and Kwara) in Nigeria. We would create a partnership with existing Climate focused organisations in Nigeria which includes: Climate Wednesday, Solution17ForClimate, Young African Leaders Initiative, Global Shapers etc. Increase the retention of skilled and professional editors on Wikipedia.


Can your project scale?

Yes, this is an undeniable change and happening which is affecting all and sundry and would require having a community for it in Nigeria which is the goals of the Nigerian Wikimedians for Sustainable Development.


Why are you the people to do it?

We have User: Ptinphusmia will also co-lead as the project coordinator, considering her wealth of experience in organizing Wikimedia projects such as South East Edit-a-thon, Wiki4climate online edit-a-thon, facilitating movement strategy follow-up discussions for room 2 of Skills and Leadership Development (cluster C) and moderating the two-day strategy discussions for Igbo Wikimedia Usergroup. Euphemia is the Leader of Owerri Hub network in Nigeria. She is currently the founder of the WikiVibrance Project and also the co-pioneer for the WikiForHumanRights Campaigns since 2021 in Nigeria. We have both help in leading Sustainable Development Activities in Nigeria.

User:James Moore200 I would be taking the frontier as the lead of this project with the support of Euphemia UWANDU and other volunteers. I happen to be the convener convener of the 2021 Wiki Loves SDGs in Nigeria and a member of the team that coordinated Wikipedia @20 in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria after which I proceeded to organise awareness campaigns in two different institutions in Nigeria aside community engagement and series of trainings and editors which has proruced over 1,000 new editors on average per year.


What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?

First, this would help to onboard non-wikimedians from various climate change focused communities. Connect them to communities closer to them for easy accessibility and support in the locality. This would also introduce them to ways to contribute to free knowledge via any of the Wikimedia platforms which will increase the contribution of shortlisted participants on Wikimedia Projects in Nigeria relating to Climate Change.


What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?

These challenges are not far-fetched, rather they are the ones we have encountered in the past one year of leading as organisers for sustainable development related initiatives in Nigeria. The challenges are as follows but are not limited to: Access to right, experienced or professional climate activists. This project will overcome it as it will engage climate change activists from renowned organisations in Nigeria across the four identified states; Lagos, Imo, Kwara State and Abuja. Due to the fact that we are reaching out to organisations, this solves the problem and gives us an assurance of a bigger ans better impact in Nigeria.

Secondly, time factor. In our past events there has always been a huge challenge in the are of timelines for project execution, this is different as WikiCred offers us enough time to plan, prepare and also execute. More so, the first three weeks of our project will be for planning and getting invitations to identified organisations in the identified areas.


How will you spend your funds?

The sum of ten thousand dollars requested are analysed below:

  1. Event Space Rental: $200 x 4 = $800
  2. Refreshments (Snacks and lunch) $12 x 27 people (organisers inclusive) x 2days x 4 locations =$2,592
  3. Branded Souvenirs, RollUp Banners, TShirts Award Certificate for top 10 editors in Nigeria and Promotional Materials $380
  4. Social Media Promotion & Branding = $300
  5. Internet Subscription for the five months of project initiation= $500
  6. Internet Scholarship for participants $10 x15x 4 = $600
  7. Communication = $120
  8. Zoom Subscription for online follow up = $100
  9. PPE = $75
  10. Travels: Local and air travel for Core Team Members = $628
  11. Accommodation for the Organizers in Abuja and Lagos = $97.5 /day ×6 = $585
  12. Prizes local prizes in the four locations: $300 each = $1,200
  13. Support for Jury: This comprises of cost of gift and internet support to Jury = $400
  14. Logistics = $120
  15. Camera Rental = $250
  16. Project Management for 6 months = $600
  17. Miscellaneous = $400

Total: $ 9,650


How long will your project take?

6 Months


Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?

Yes, I have worked on several projects which includes: training, edit-a-thons, contest, global celebration, which can be seen here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/James_Moore200

Here is a direct link to the related projects I have for-organised with Euphemia which are related to an extent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/WikiForHumanRights_2022_in_Nigeria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/WikiForHumanRights_2021_in_Nigeria