 Welcome everyone to Wikimania 2023. I'm Butch Bustria, the Lead Co-Organizer. Today we will be discussing about the regional grant committees. With us, our panelist is Gozi, representing ESEAP. We have Farah from the MENA region, Shabab from the South Asia region, Harriet, from the South Saharan Africa also. With us, Nanor also from the MENA region. So, we'll start first with our host today, Gozi of ESEAP. Over to you, Gozi. Okay, hello everyone, my name is Gozi. I'm from ESEAP region. The original submission for the session is actually from Farah, from MENA region, so I will give Farah for the floor for opening. Thank you, Gozi. Greetings, Wikimania. I'm Farah Mustatlim from Palestine. I'm serving on the Regional Grants Committee for Africa and the Middle East. And I would like to say a quick word about the Regional Grants Committees that I've been a part of for the last two years. So, the regionalization of the grant decision making has been a great step towards the decentralization of the Wikimedia movement as a whole. It has allowed for deliberations between the diverse group of people that are more familiar with the dynamics of their own local regions that can make more nuanced decisions on the funding of the different projects. I invite you all to explore the different grant opportunities and to talk to your Regional Grants Officers or a member of your Regional Grants Committee. That's one of us or many more members. And with that, I will give it back to Gozi. Thank you all. Okay, today we have for the speaker, we have me, myself, Gozi, and we have Sabab from South Asia Regions and Harriet from MENA and Sub-Saharan African Regions. Of course, this whole session, this whole presentation is supported by Regional Grants Committee all around the world and from Committee Resource Team first. What is Regional Grants Committee? So, it is committee who providing both guidance and support to applicant as well as making decision about how movement funds should be distributed. So, it is a volunteer role but it's actually supported Committee Resource Team to make a, to review the proposal from grantee and also making a decision but it's collectively review and collectively decision. Okay, next slide will be what is the Regional Grants Committee function? So, the Regional Grants Committee function will be responsible and ownership for setting priorities in the region, of course, allocating fund for specific type of initiative and ensuring the involvement of allied partner organization which is we have like four type of grant. One is a community fund, rapid fund, alien funds and the last is research fund. Each this process benefit greatly from existing expertise, new idea and awareness of required skill for local communities. Next will be the purpose of the Regional Grants Committee. The purpose is objectively review and allocated grant for project that align with Wikimedia of Mission with the goal of fostering community in judgment, supporting innovative project and promoting diversity and exclusivity. So, the Regional Grants Committee make sure that the project from the proposal is actually aligned with the Wikimedia movement. Next will be presented by Shabab. Go over to you Shabab. Hello everyone, my name is Shabab and I'm one of the members of the Regional Grants Committee for South Asia. So, let's go back a little bit. Yeah, so this is the RGC operation how the Regional Grants Committee works. So, we live in a world with the diverse geographical diversity, there are cultural diversity. So, right now the Regional Committee are actually separated in eight regions. And for these eight regions, only seven committee works, one of the two of the regions are the same committee right now. So, for the RGC operations, we have the region we have are Central East Europe and Central Asia, North and Western Europe, North America, Latin America and Caribbean, East, Southeast Asia and Pacific, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa. So, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa, those two regions have the same committee right now. So, how to select the committee member, how they come. So, for the RGC selection process, all the members come from the community. So, there are a forum or a meta someone can nominate themselves to serve for the Regional Grants Committee and after the selection process, then they start working. There is another way that if a committee at a point thinks that they need some specialized expertise from some other community member that they can benefit from. So, they can invite a particular skilled, a particular committee member who are skilled on a particular topic, let's say for technology or maybe finance or banking or maybe someone has some experience with the local regulations. So, these are the two selection process that actually happens. It's not an election, it's a selection process. Next slide, please. So, how important is RGC? From the beginning of my talk, I mentioned that we live in a very diverse world and each of the geographic region had its own challenges. So, it is very difficult to understand the situation better from an outsider who is not residing on those particular geographic region. So, that's why when the Regional Grants Committee was, the system of Regional Grants Committee was established, it enabled us to bring together people who has in-depth knowledge on the challenges and the opportunity of that particular region. So, it is an effective effort of going towards more diversified approach and bring all the expertise from the community that we can have. When we have that process, sometimes people think that RGC is just for grantees. It might seems like RGC is an obstacle to the grant process because right now, they want to, there is an extra step of recommendation that the RGC people actually make. So, is it an obstacle? Absolutely not. So, the main purpose of Regional Grants Committee is not to deny grants, it's to facilitate the grant. So, many times when a grant request come, maybe grant isn't new, maybe they do not know a particular challenge about that reason. So, when the Regional Grants Committee members actually review the grant applications, they can actually, can recommend you a different approach, a better approach, or maybe recommend nothing to you and say you are doing a very good job. So, we are the people who have two kinds of skills that we bring to actually from outside, maybe from our profession or training or something like, or academic training or something like that, or when we are actually reviewing the other applications from the same region and following up the grants reports and know the challenges that cumulative knowledge actually sometimes will be very beneficial to the grantees as well. So, we can recommend them better. So, RGC is not an obstacle, our actually is under is to make the grant successful and the grantee a very great success. So, yeah. So, RGC is not an obstacle, we are here to help other grantees. So, I think I'm sending it back to Gozi again. Thank you, Gozi. Okay, thank you, Sabab. The next section will be presented by Harriet from MENA and Sub-Saharan region. Thank you, Gozi. Thank you, Sabab. Hello, everyone. I am Harriet Baya from Sub-Saharan Africa and I'll be presenting on how proposals are reviewed in slides. Yes. So, I'd like to start by sharing that proposals are reviewed by regional committee members from an objective and supportive stance. In addition to this, individuals with any form of conflict of interest with the proposal or the grantee have to recuse themself from the review process. Next slide. So, there are four criteria involved in the review process by regional committee members and the first one is on the overall clarity of the proposal. That is how clear and coherent is the proposal considering the activities mentioned, the strategies, the entire plan listed in the proposal. The other thing to consider when it comes to the overall clarity is how feasible is the proposal considering the objective, the activities and even the timeframe listed in the proposal. The second criteria is on the impact potential and then the strategic alignment. Considering the organization and then the vision and also the proposal's objective and goals. Do they align and is there any indication of community support or reflecting the needs of the community? And how is this proposal going to benefit the community in terms of bringing in new volunteers or even retaining the existing volunteers? And does the proposal indicate any form of strategic partners that will ensure that the proposal is implemented? The third criteria is on the organizational capacity the third criteria is on the organizational capacity and the budget. Who are the team members involved here and are they experienced volunteers or not? And is there grantee looking forward to outsourcing people who would help them in implementing the proposal? And does the budget match the impact? Is there any form of support for volunteers or a budget for the tools and equipment that will be needed to ensure that the proposal is implemented? And the last one is on the learning and evaluation. What does the grantee hope to learn from implementing this proposal? And are they gathering the rights and data or providing metrics for this particular proposal or learning? And are they using the right tools? So these are the criteria as we as regional committee members depend on to review a proposal. I'll be taking you through how the review process is done. So the review process is done first with an individual review where we go through the proposal and then provide feedback on maybe the strength of the proposal and even any other outstanding questions. This feedback is shared with the grantee on the discussion page of the proposal. And after this initial activity we have a second deliberation but this time around as a group and then we come up with a unified feedback on the proposal. If there are any areas for consent or improvement or more strength on the proposal we share this with the grantee. And at this stage if the grantee feels that they need to meet with the regional committee members concerning some outstanding questions or to ensure that we are on the same page they can request that they meet with the regional committee members and then we can have a discussion with them. At this stage we do receive some form of resource from the community resource team where the past reports of the grantee is shared with us and also the experience of the grantee is also shared with us. We also receive documents concerning the staff review of the proposal. And this in a way helps us to understand the grantee and also the past experience of the proposal. And after this stage we have a final deliberation where the decision will be made concerning the proposal whether to fund it or not and if there are any recommendations we include this in this final deliberation. Again, any regional committee member with any form of conflict of interest is recused right from the start to the end. So at this stage they wouldn't even be a part of the decision making process as well. Next slide please. So I'd like to take this opportunity to share my experience as a regional committee member. For me it has been an enlightening experience in the sense that I've gotten to know more about the grantee review process. I've also learnt more about proposal writing and also being supportive in my review. And this is to the trainees that we've had. So I'd like to encourage everyone to take the initiative to be part if you identify with this and also I'd like to make some recommendations based on my experience. That is for grantees to reach out to program officers and also to reach out to regional committee members if they need any form of help and also to take opportunity and make good use of the conversations that exist on knowing more about the proposal writing or even grant review process. And the last one is to assure grantees that we are here to support their work. So they should have some form of good fit in the work of the regional grants committee. Thank you and over to you, Gozi. Okay, thank you, Hariat. The next session will be the question and suggestion from the audience. So offer to you, Butch. Thank you, Gozi. So I'm reading right now the chat and also our etherpad. So our first question here is how long are the term limits of the regional grant committees? Anyone could answer, please? I can answer that. So the term limit for each committee is officially two years. So every two years, the committee members should add more. Maybe someone is living. So that kind of thing actually happens. So right now, as long as I know, all of the committees are running on deficit. So we always welcome more people to join with us and to work with us. So you are always welcome. Over to you, Butch. Okay, is there any other regional grant committees who would like to chime in as well? I can add some. So yeah, as Shabaka said, the original term limits are for two years, but then reappointment is possible for the sitting committee members and adding new members is always a good thing. But also keeping some of the old members with more experience is also a good idea for the transition to have overlap. So it's not, the whole committee is not overhauled every two years. So it's a gradual introduction of more members rather than a set of two years at the time. Okay, thank you. So another question here on the etherpad is what is the eligibility of the regional grant committee member? Anyone? I can answer for this briefly that there is changes that happened two months ago about who can be as a member, a volunteer member in the regional funds committee. And many, at least in my region, left the committee because they don't match longer with the new criteria and eligibility. And we can found this in our meta page. For example, staff or any paid member from affiliates cannot be anymore in the regional fund committee. I don't remember where the other points but the new eligibility's criteria is on meta. Thank you. Is there any guidance for beginners to fill out the application or flux in that particular case? Is it part of the regional grant committee's work? Anyone from the regional grant committee's please? No. It is not the part of RGC's work. So the Flask is actually maintained by the grants committee, actually the grants team of the foundation. And when a grantee actually submit a grant on Flask, it automatically imports in the meta and the program officer who is in charge of the regional grant committee notifies the committee that there is a grant application which is pending for the review. So we do not actually work with Flask directly. And with the guidance for beginners, I guess the community resource team actually arrange meetings with possible grantees and help them. I do not know any particular tutorial that is publicly available or not. Maybe someone else can help with that. Yes, Nanu? Yes. Thank you, Shabab. And I will introduce myself this time. I'm Nanor from a member regional fund committee for Middle East and Africa. Actually, it's not only for beginners. It could be any experienced user but never applied for a grant. So using the Flask for the first time, it's a beginner for everyone experienced users or beginner users. And the Flask itself it's a for grant portal that many can use it and can't found many tutorials beside the meta. And on meta and when anyone registered on this portal, there is a tutorial there too explaining how to continue on that. And beside that, we are here or any other staff member from the resource committee can help with it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Nanor, for that insight or answer. We also have one question from our audience. The conflict of interest or COI of the regional grant committees. How has it applied when they're applying for a grant? Let's say an RGC member is a member of a user group or a chapter and then they are actually an applicant for a grant. A committee member would need to recurse themselves or what is the process? Maybe I could answer that. Right from the start, a grantee who is also a regional committee member would have to recurse themselves. We know that the person will be listed on the proposal and so the person would have to recurse themselves from the start and will not have anything to do with the review process. And as we shared earlier on, if you are receiving any form of compensation or payment as a result of being a member of the athlete or any paid role, you can't even be a member of the regional grant committee. So these are ways to actually ensure that regional committee members do not have anything to do with the proposal or are not in a way influenced by their rules or affiliation with the proposal. Yeah. Thanks. Okay, so we have one audience who provided their experience with the grant application. He mentioned that his application got rejected. However, there was a process that was done wherein the grant application was reapplied but with further guidance and he is actually satisfied on the assistance that was provided and that grant application was eventually approved. So that is one of the innovations that we're trying to replicate in various locations in the grant committees, the other grant committees in the world. Okay, so we also have another suggestion from our audience that if possible, the regional grant committees would arrange virtual meetings that would provide both the regional grant committees and grantees with greater clarity. I remember that was done in one region wherein they have a one-on-one with the grant applicant and that was one of the best practice that was done in the other regions, okay? So any further inputs from our regional grant committees like FARA or NANOR on the best practices done by other regional grant committees that you could include in this discussion? No, I think we don't have anything more right now to add to this. Thank you. Okay, thank you. So one other thing is if we could able to survey the members the members and have it on public, that was also a suggestion. And then if in case you have further queries, you can always go to META. You can just type in grants regions and then you could click on your respective region and then see the contact information of the regional grant committees. And then also you could also check the previous applications done by other affiliates or allied organizations on how they perform their grant application that you could use that as somewhat of a template when you're applying for a new grant, okay? So with that, we appreciate the attendance of our regional grant committees today and we now proceed with the other sessions in Wikimedia. Thank you.