Re: Why Was Nepal Denied While Overlapping Grants Were Approved in India?

In my view, the Wikimedia Foundation tends to say that the South Asian
volunteer user community manages itself, while the regional volunteer user
community tends to say that Wikimedia Foundation staff make the regional
Wikimedia governance decisions.

Whatever the reality is, I wish that we could have open conversations about
roles and responsibilities of WMF staff versus volunteer organizations.
This is a recurring issue over 10+ years in every region of the world.


On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 11:33 AM DR Wikipedia via Wikimedia-l <
[email protected]> wrote:

> +1 to this.
>
> DR
> English Wikipedia
>
> On Tue, 24 Mar 2026 at 9:37 PM, Pankaj Sharma via Wikimedia-l <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> The community proposal to host the regional SAARC Conference in 2026 in
>> Nepal
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Conference_Fund/Wikimedia_SAARC_Conference_2026>
>> was declined. The reasons provided was the event would be redundant and an
>> unnecessary expense because a similar conference is planned in India in the
>> year of 2025. However in 2025 conference in India didn't happened and
>> surprisingly our proposal was declined beacuse of that. But why.!!!
>>
>> While Nepal’s proposal was viewed with skepticism regarding our capacity,
>> the 2025 conference in India failed to materialize due to a failure in
>> financial management and a lack of understanding regarding local FCRA
>> regulations in India. This resulted in a substantial huge waste of
>> Wikimedia Foundation resources. It is disheartening that the Conference
>> Grant Program Officer applied Indian legal constraints as a blanket
>> assumption for Nepal, hindering our community's growth based on a
>> misunderstanding of our local context.
>>
>> I have a question: How did the legal situation in India affect the
>> decision on a proposal of Nepal?
>>
>> Looking ahead to 2026 I was doubtful by the current grant applications
>> from the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad. I see
>> that a request for 207,000 USD has been submitted for WikiConference India
>> 2026. Simultaneously, the same individual representing the same
>> institution, has applied for an separate 87,554.81 USD for an Open
>> Knowledge Conference within a gap of few months of the first event with
>> same purpose and target participants.
>>
>> As a Wikimedian this raises serious questions about the equitable
>> distribution and potential misuse of community resources. While Nepal is
>> told to scale down and gain experience with smaller events, a single
>> institution is requesting nearly 300,000 USD for overlapping projects with
>> same people in the organization role and same theme.
>>
>> If the Wikimedia Foundation is concerned about redundancy and extra costs
>> when it comes to Nepal, why is it being overlooked when a single
>> institution in India applies for two major grants for nearly identical
>> purposes? We need more accountability and a fairer distribution of
>> resources to ensure that all communities not just one can grow. We urge the
>> foundation and the community to investigate these for the benefit of the
>> entire regional community and stop wasting the resources make the process
>> more transparent and accountable.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Pankaj
>> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry
🟦🌀💙🌀🟦

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