Grants talk:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Community User Group Côte d'Ivoire/2021

APG approved in the amount of 33,000 USD

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 33,000 USD, with a grant term starting 1 January 2021 and ending 31 December 2021.

This is WCUG-CI’s second year in the Simple Annual Plan Grants program this year. In its first year of initial experimentation, the user group reports having made substantive progress towards many of its goals in documenting local languages, building productive relationships with libraries and cultural institutions, and extensive content improvements about several localities in the 130 Years project. We appreciate the considerable work the user group has accomplished while also challenged by the practical restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, WCUG-CI plans to maintain its content building work while focusing more attention on building its organizational capacity through training, orienting newcomers to Wikimedia projects, and to receive training on CC licensing practices. The organization also plans to provide more direct support to different associated working groups, such as initiating a WikiClub at a girl’s high school, creating spaces for local developers to meet and work together, and more closely involving GLAM staff in its continued participation in the 1Lib1Ref campaign. We are glad to see WCUG-CI both seeking support from mission-aligned institutions in Côte d'Ivoire, while also providing important resourcing to members and communities it is well-paced to serve.

The proposed budget is a substantial increase from the previous year (about a 250% increase), largely based on the addition of several new staff members and to a lesser extent, some programmatic growth. The Simple APG program is not able to support increases of this magnitude in general, and we are also concerned about the risks of adding many new staff in organizations that do not have a demonstrable record of managing and supporting employees. Based on this funding decision, we are recommending:

• a reduction in the staffing budget, and to focus on supporting the Program Coordinator (Fiche technique du Coordinateur) role to support more modest programmatic expansion,

• proportional reductions in the proposed programming budget, as we want your programmatic work to grow sustainably. Your targets in the metrics worksheet should also be adjusted to reflect these changes.

• removing the budget for a dedicated office, which we may be able to support in a future application.

• requesting a budget reallocation for external accounting or bookkeeping services. These services are available in Cote d'Ivoire and will be easier to maintain than a dedicated Finance Officer (administratif et financier) at this stage.

We look forward to seeing Wikimedia Community User Group Côte d'Ivoire work in the coming year and are glad to support you in your second year.

Best regards,on behalf of the Simple APG Committee and Staff,--VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:06, 15 December 2020 (UTC)