Wikimedia Foundation elections 2021 Africa

Background

The 2021 Board of Trustees election is coming soon. Candidates from the community are needed to fill the available 4 seats and the Wikimedia community has the opportunity to vote and choose the new trustees.

This is an opportunity for the African Community to be represented for the first time in the board by at least one trustee.

Africa is an amazing continent and deserve to be represented in the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation especially that the foundation has pledged, as part of the global movement strategy, to close the gap towards a more racially, culturally and geographically inclusive movement.

Here some facts about our amazing continentː

• Africa is the second most populous continent with about 1.1 billion people or 16% of the world’s population. Over 50% of Africans are under the age of 25.
• Africa is the world’s second-largest continent covering about over 30 million square kilometers.
• There are 54 countries in Africa and before colonial rule, the continent comprised up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs.

Goal

The goal of this African community election is to be united and agree on at least one candidate that we will support in the global elections. To have more chance to have one candidate representing Africa being elected it's very important to be united behind this candidate and avoid having scattered votes for many candidates.

Please note that having a candidate from Africa doesn’t mean that we are looking to install bias for all of Africa at the expense of other regions. The candidate will serve all communities without favoring one at the expense of another.

Please note also that this polling doesn't stop any candidate to apply for the board. Any African wikimedian can apply directly to the board on the official WMF voting page without going through this polling.

Eligible Voters

As the purpose of this polling is to agree on the African candidates for the board of trustees, it's very important to take into account the same eligibility criteria set by the foundation for this election.

This being said, the criteria areː

• Any active African Wikimedian: it includes nationals of African countries and any Wikimedian actively participating in projects in Africa. Voters must mention on one of their user pages that they are from an African state or participating actively in an African project. Any vote users who didn’t indicate before the result on their user pages that they belongs to the African Community will be considered as null and void.
• At least 300 edits in totalː the count will be done before the announcement of the result.
• At least 30 edits in the past 6 monthsː the count will be done before the announcement of the result.

PSː it's very important that voters should pledge to support the winner candidate(s) in the global elections even if the candidate that they voted for didn't win this regional community vote.

Eligible Candidate

Candidates must fulfill the duties of board and committee service. This includes inquiring into relevant issues, making informed decisions, and attending board meetings. The eligibility requirements for candidates are the same as for voters with these additional requirements:

• You must not have been convicted of a serious crime or any crime involving dishonesty or deception;
• You must not have been removed from a position at a non-profit organization or company because of mismanagement or misconduct;
• At the time of nomination or election, you may not be banned or blocked from any Wikimedia project for a period of 30 days or longer;
• If you only meet the voter eligibility requirements as an editor: Your first edit must have been before 9 June 2019;
• You must disclose your real name on your Candidate Application;

It is not possible to hold a position on the Board of Trustees under a pseudonym because Board Trustees identities are public record.

• You must be at least 18 years old and of legal age in your home country;
• You must submit proof of your identity and age to the Wikimedia Foundation; and
• If you are selected and appointed to the Board of Trustees, you must resign from any other board, governance, or paid positions at the Wikimedia Foundation, chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups.

In order to maximize our chances to elect more than one candidate and as suggested on the African Telegram group, we will set two candidate categoriesː

1. Some one who is a respected and capable community member.

1. Someone who may be an expert in open movement in the continent.

Candidate are requested to choose one of the above categories. The winners of these two categories will have a full support of the African community during the global elections.

Timeline

The official timeline set by the foundation isː

1. Applications accepted between 00:00 9 June 2021 (UTC) and 23:59 29 June 2021 (UTC).

Based on this and since we don't have enough time, we suggest the following timelineː

1. Call for candidates between 00:00 13 June 2021 (UTC) and 23:59 19 June 2021 (UTC).
2. Voting between 00:00 20 June 2021 (UTC) and 23:59 26 June 2021 (UTC).
3. Result announcement 27 June 2021 (UTC). Due to lack of time, it will be difficult to have a second round and in case of Tie situation the following criteria will applyː

• a- User creation date: the oldest user in the movement win.
• b- Number of edits: the user with highest number of edits win.
• c- Gender and minority groups: All things being equal, women or gender minority candidates shall be preferred.

Poll Facilitators

Poll faciliated by:

1. Yamen (talk)
2. Thuvack (talk)

Candidates

Community Leader

Please fill the below informationː

Reda Kerbouche

Caption text

Candidate details	Name = Reda Kerbouche Username = Reda Kerbouche (talk • edits • logs • UserRights • activity • CentralAuth • email • verify 2FA) Location = Batna, Algeria / St Petersburg, Russia Languages = arq-N, shy-N, ar-4, fr-4, ru-4, en-3, de-1 Wikimedia since = 2010 Active wikis = French Wikipedia, Tacawit wiktionary (Syspo), Commons.
statement (Not more than 450 words)	About me: My professional experience has always been related to management and leadership. I started by creating my own company working in the field of culture, then I was invited to work with large European retailers and multinational corporations from France and Sweeden. in parallel with my personal projects in the cultural field. from 2019 I am working with cultural associations in Algeria collaborating with UNESCO to promote the material and immaterial heritage. in 2020 I start an organization in Algeria the Citizen Inventory of Heritage where I am a co-founder and CFO. I have specialist degree and a Ph.D. in management from the University of St. Petersburg. I was born in Asia, I grew up in Africa, and I live in Europe (I feel like a son of the world). I am a founding member and manager of Wikimedians of Tamazight User Group and head of communication at Wikimedia Algeria since 2014. I am an active member of the community with various contributions to Wikimedia projects since 2010. I have organized and led several Wikimedia projects in the last few years. I support all communities, mostly indigenous languages. I have organized with my group several Wikimedia contests. I presented several projects at several conferences around the world about Wikimedia, in 2018 I did a small presentation about the Wikimedia movement at a UNESCO event in Tunis. I speak French, Arabic, Russian, Tacawit, and work in English and I'm learning German. I work for developing African and indigenous languages, in 2019 I was able to start the creation process of the Tacawit Wiktionary (the first language community to found itself on a project other than Wikipedia). I was in the organizing committees of WikiIndaba and WikiArabia. I am also a member of Wiki Indaba Steering Committee and a Former member of the Affiliations Committee. About my goals: As an active member of the community at the international level, and with my personal experience, I know that we can do better. many affiliates ('especially user groups) cannot receive grants to meet their needs and struggle day and night to exist. This problem is very common in all open-source movements. The big challenge will be to find a solution to help all volunteers around the world to do their work promoting our movement, especially where access to our resources is difficult. More diversity in the movement, we always say that we have a diverse movement, but in fact, we still have to work on it, especially on gender and minority groups. My biggest dream is for our movement to live in non-politics so that all peoples, countries, genders, cultures, religions live with the sole purpose of promoting free knowledge. if we can accomplish this, then by doing so we will be able to fulfill several points from sustainable development
Top 3 Board priorities	1. Guarantee equal treatment for all Wikimedia movement without exception. Initiate new activities that aim to reduce and eliminate inequalities in the movement 2. Finding a solution to the problems that have arisen with the financing of certain affiliations recognized by the Foundation 3. Сreate new partnerships where none exist and accompany people from the movement to work with them.
Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities	1.More diversity of skills and knowledge in the governance of the foundation. to solve problems that are paused or ignored. 2. Spreading the movement where it does not exist, to attract new competencies, and help those who exist to grow and develop. 3. Provide for Safety and Inclusion for all who need this.

Open Movement Expert

Please fill the below informationː

Your Name

Caption text

Candidate details	name = username = image = image caption = location = languages = wikimedian since = active wikis =
statement (Not more than 450 words)	Example
Top 3 Board priorities	Example
Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities	Example