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Ibrahim Elaidy (Ibrahim.ID)

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Preferred name Ibrahim Elaidy
Language capabilities (native or professional / advanced / basic) Ar-N, EN-4, Fr-1
Region and country you identify with Middle East & North Africa, Egypt
Interim GRDC seats you are running for and why (regional volunteer/thematic volunteer) regional volunteer and thematic volunteer
Do you have any topic or area of specialization within the Wikimedia movement? (max 1000 characters) I have worked in many roles and areas within Wikimedia movement:
  1. I have been a volunteer in Wikimedia projects since 2009 and have contributed to many projects such as Wikipedia, Commons, Wikidata, and others.
  2. I also have several roles with WMF (like: RFC - U4C), I volunteered to: drafting Universal Code of Conduct, Movement Charter.
  3. working with my local affiliate, I'm co-founder and I have been working in the group management since 2014. I followed up on many administrative and organizational matters such as organizing the WikiArabia Conference 2017. I also rebuilt the user group again in 2022 and removed obstacles to obtain an annual grant, and we succeeded in doing so.
  4. I always participate with my local community (MENA region) in meetings and conferences, and have helped resolve many problems and disputes.
Have you ever held any role or position, either current or past, in the Wikimedia movement? (max 1000 characters) I'm a elected member in Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) (represent MENA), Member in Wikimedia Regional Funding Committee Member since 2023 - MENA region, and CEO and Board Member of Egypt Wikimedians User Group since 2022, Also I'm Admin in Arwiki, Member at Wikimedia VRT.
Why are you interested in the interim GRDC and what can you contribute? (max 1000 characters) many reasons:
  • First: I want to help and support affiliations in my region, and also marginalized regions such as Africa. I spent years in Regional Funding Committee and saw many obstacles and problems that need to be addressed.
  • Second: I have many ideas that will greatly help in increasing governance and transparency for grantees, addressing many bureaucracies and negatives, and also exploiting opportunities to achieve greater goals.
  • Third: many of the things followed in grants system have become outdated and need to be developed in a way that makes follow-up and monitoring easy and smooth. I have many ideas and suggestions before the idea of ​​the committee emerged and I see that it will be a good opportunity to raise and implement these matters.
Please share any volunteering or professional experience relevant for the interim GRDC (role, organization, years) (max 1000 characters) As I mention above, I have experience with Wikimedia projects for 16 years, I also have anther contributions like: translation and technical matters with several projects. I have wide activities and good reputation (since I have never been blocked at any Wikimedia projects before). I have 10 years with my local affiliate and also been involved in the grant-making process for years and have gained a lot of experience in organizing activities, management, managing funds, preparing reports and more. Otherwise I had followed the grant steps for my user group (which The committee's decision was a full funding with big support) I also had prior experience with rapid grants, I have two years experience with Regional Funding Committee (was Africa and middle east region) , during which I reviewed more than 60 grant applications, communicated a lot with several user groups to help them with their grant applications correctly, which has given me good experience in this field.
The most important thing is that I have a good relationship with my local community and I know it well. Over the years, I have been able to build strong relationships with users, projects, and local groups. I understand their problems very well, I always consider myself part of the link between the local community and WMF.
Describe your skills and experience relevant to the interim GRDC (max 1500 characters) I hold a university degree and a Master's in Business Administration (MBA). My skills include accounting, record-keeping, data collection, and survey management, which could be valuable for assessing financial conditions, inflation rates, and other relevant metrics in different regions. Additionally, I possess strong online research and communication skills.
Describe your understanding of the Wikimedia Movement's current resource distribution process. (max 1500 characters) Wikimedia movement seeks to achieve several principles and values, such as Equity, Accountability, Autonomy, Inclusivity and Sharing opinions and participating in decision-making, and certainly the existence of this committee is important in order to achieve these goals in a way that aims for fair distribution, independence, and also representation of communities.
How do you think the GRDC could improve the current situation and which priorities do you think it should have? (max 1500 characters) IMO, the existence of this committee is necessary and important, and I hope that it will succeed and become an actual committee after two years, because it will have powers and roles and will be more focused on important matters such as: clarifying the quotas for the regions, monitoring and governing the grant recipients in a way that ensures greater transparency and effectiveness in the use of resources, as well as developing tools for the grant process, and also helping the grant recipients to improve their affairs and to get on the right track. Last year, I participated (as a member of the grants committee) in discussions on the distribution of resources and I had many observations, perhaps the main reason for that is the lack of understanding of the nature of the regions and their internal problems (such as inflation) and also the lack of studying the growth in these regions well, so when I attended many online or in-person meetings, I realized how important the existence of this committee is, and of course I am one of its strongest supporters even if I did not have the opportunity to join it.
By the end of the pilot in two years, what should the GRDC have accomplished and how should we measure its success? (max 1500 characters) From my work in some other community committees; I see that the process of building the committee is the most important step that requires many steps and may long time, but in the end it will be able to manage and follow up on its goals well.

I see that after two years the committee will have several things such as:

  • Understanding the nature of many regions around the world, especially marginalized or low-resource regions.
  • We will have a developed and better system that will be applied to the grant process, grant committees and other parties.
  • Developing a more effective and transparent grant system.
  • Ensuring better monitoring of grant spending to reduce inefficiencies.
  • Creating written guidelines and instructions that will be helpful for all stakeholders.
  • Finally, having a plan and a roadmap will be important thing. I believe the regional funds committees will be positively affected, because they will have a body that provides them with support and guidance and will also eliminate any potential negatives thanks to the presence of a body that studies matters from a larger perspective.

I believe that the achievement of the goals and principles of the Wikimedia movement will be the best criterion for judging the success of this committee, especially the proper management and allocation of resources.

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