Catalyst Africa Town Hall (CATH)

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

CATH was launched in March 2022 to serve as a platform where people who believe and have interest in Africa could come together and collaborate. The platform served as an avenue for discussions on issues pertaining to Africa and also to consolidate efforts for the growth of the Africa community on Cardano. In the span of the last three months (March to May), the TownHall meetings were managed to expectations. The meetings which were held biweekly were supported by our proposal that got funded in F8 under the Grow Africa, Grow Cardano Challenge Team. We have created a Discord server, and Telegram accounts which are attracting a number of new members. Out of this emerged a core team which is dynamic and determined to build each community found in Africa.

Keeping the momentum, and implementing new ideas require an ongoing effort from many contributors of the community. This proposal looks forward to rewarding that commitment with a monthly incentive for a period of three months to provide a stable horizon for key contributors. With those means, we’ll be encouraging and empowering community members to participate in activities while creating and maintaining an inclusive community in order to boost the engagement of the overall African community.

What are the activities that these contributors provide?

Community Management : Coordination and management requires expertise, knowledge and commitment. Constant engagement is needed for our efforts to succeed. Maintaining constant moderation on our communication hubs requires a considerable effort. We care for close and direct communication with the community to ensure access to the needed information and to build connections and relationships around projects and ideas.

Community Events: In addition to the moderated channels, we plan organizing community events to allow our community to meet and connect with each other. We provide open spaces for people to present their ideas and projects to the community. Organizing workshops, sessions and events requires constant engagement to keep and develop the format.

Documentation: Transparent and clear documentation is a major part of our accountability and legitimacy. As we receive funds from the Cardano Treasury, we are accountable to the Community first and as such, the community has the right to access all relevant information. To achieve this, we will guarantee clear and constant documentation, which requires time and effort.  

Marketing & Content Management: To spread the word about Cardano & our project, we have a direct need to invest in effective marketing campaigns and actively engage in Social Networks to ensure a wider participation and awareness of our action to the Community.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The goal of CATH is to generate an open and warm environment where people from all over the world with interest in developing Africa can participate in Cardano related activities, where language is not an obstacle for expressing opinions and ideas. It’s a growing center of gravity in the region, with particular views and needs, that aim to have an opinion and presence in the governance of Cardano. And the Challenge Team brief specifically indicates this. 

This proposal helps to keep the CATH community growing, transferring knowledge in our various languages and helping onboard projects into Cardano. We build and maintain crucial community infrastructure and proactively participate in the building process of the Catalyst/Cardano Ecosystem

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Our main risk and Challenge is not being able to sustain all the activities that we perform. Currently those activities are performed as a time donation to a good cause. Finding members with enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate, and to keep them engaged for a long period of time is a huge challenge.

By obtaining the requested resources we will be able to provide fair economic incentives to our key contributors that will mitigate those risks.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

CATH organizes biweekly meetings in four languages: English, Arabic, Swahili and French to educate about Cardano and encourage collaborations to solve the continent's challenges using Blockchain technology.

The core planning committee meets every week to deliberate on activities and programs that will be discussed in the biweekly meetings. Also plan on activities and events that will be introduced into the community to sustain and maintain it. 

This project particularly has a duration of three (3) months starting from June 1st to August 31st 2022.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

This project will be delivered over a period of 3 months and has a monthly allowance for key contributors over the period. The remuneration is for the five activities described below:

1. Community Managers
2. Community Events
3. Development of a Treasury and its management
4. Documentation
5. Marketing & Social Networks

To perform the above activities we need dedicated collaborators to the course.

Note: The stated compensation doesn't mean that all work will rely on paid contributors, rather there will still be many contributing as volunteers.

Answer

Budget estimation is for 7 dedicated members with a monthly payment of $1000 each over a period of 3 months, totaling $23,800.

The budget is composed as follows:

• Community Management: 4 members x 3 months: $12.000
• Marketing & Social Networks: 1 member x 3 months: $3.000
• Community Events: 1 member x 3 months: $3,000
• Treasury development and Documentation: 1 member x 3 months: $3,000
• Internet allowances to communities to get community participation: $800
• Contingencies overhead cost in organizing events - $2000

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Felix Weber @catalystswarm: (Advisor to the team from Swarm) enthusiast & community networker, T&M's elected representative for the 1st Catalyst Circle, co-founder of Catalyst Swarm, co-initiator & coordinator of the Eastern Hemisphere Town Hall, initiator of the Catalyst Alliance.

Afia Owusu: Currently lead in organizing CATH for the past 3 months. Wada West Africa Lead, Environmentalist, CA for funds 6, 7 and 8. vCA for fund 7&8, Idea Fest Host for funds 6, 7, & 8, member CT, active in most Catalyst meetings (C4C, Town Halls, Idea Fest programs). Linkedin -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/afia-owusu-04911816/; Discord - Afia Owusu #3104; Telegram - @AfiaAOwusu; Twitter - @AfiaOwusu13)

Daniel David Lezu Community Manager: He was a Community Advisor in Catalyst fund 7 and Catalyst Challenge Team Lead for ‘Scale-UP Cardano’s Community Hubs’ challenge settings for fund 8 and Community Manager for the Catalyst Africa Town Hall. He envisioned using Blockchain Technology to bridge the gap between human capabilities and machine learning (AI & IoT). 

Richmond Graphics lead

Elias Arabic community lead: Engineer speaking Arabic, French and English, Fund 7 proposer and Marlowe Pioneer, he's an active member of Cardano community groups of the Cardano community (THs, C4C, Sustainable ADA). Interested in education and climate action.

Paul Mupenda, member of the Goma Wada Hub, CA in Fund 8 and also a front-end developper

Baba Elliot Swahili community lead (Evans Kisanga); From Tanzania,

IdeaScale: @babaelliot Discord: NYS#7565; Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/evans-kisanga- 3b4316181; Fullstack Web and App developer ( rffxtz-a57bb.web.app/#/ , https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lordkisanga.rffxtz ); Member and active contributor in Catalyst communities (Catalyst School, Sustainable ADA, C4C,GTH, CATH, CETH), Catalyst Proposal Assessors

Emelia Sarfo - CA/PA for Fund 6, 7, 8. vCA for fund 7; Challenge Team Member (Grow Africa, Grow Cardano); Funded Project SubCircle member , Teacher, HR Consultant, Funded Proposer in Fund8 for Ghana Youth Onboarding Outreach (challenge- New Member Onboarding), Voter (Fund 8).

Twitter account- @emesarfo2; LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/emelia-sarfo-92787662

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

This is a recurrent proposal to fund operations of CATH for three months, But, the aim eventually is to build the community to become self-sustaining in the near future and till this happens we will surely fall on Catalyst.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Our Key Progress Indicators will be:

• Biweekly Townhall videos published 
• Records of weekly coordination meetings to report on progress and plan for activities
• Management of our social platforms per day (Twitter, Discord, Telegram, etc)
• All our transactions accounted for.

Outcomes KPIs

• Number of Community members on each of our Channels
• Number of messages from the community in each of our channels
• Number of Attendees to our Town Hall
• Creation of more social channels - website, youtube, twitter and others
• Number of Likes and re-shares of our content in each of our channels

What does success for this project look like?

Our success will be to sustain, grow and evolve a vibrant Africa community that is engaged and actively growing its contributions to the Cardano ecosystem.

We will also like to nurture new localized communities that are born under the incentive and example of the Africa Cardano Community in a decentralized fashion.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Over the last three months, we have grown our telegram group from zero to +124 members, and created a Discord server with +30 members. Our biweekly meetings are around +20 participants and grow at every meeting and we plan to increase this

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

It was previously funded in Fund 8; https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/401713  

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

1. SDG Goal 1 - No Poverty
2. SGD Goal 2 - No Hunger
3. SDG Goal 8 - Decent Work & Economic Growth