The ICA and Technical Assistance to Developing Countries

Abstract

While international archival affairs have played a relatively minor role in activities of SAA, it is interesting to recall that Society was involved in two most significant decisions in history of International Council on Archives its founding in 1948 and its decision in 1966 to give highest priority to technical assistance for archives in developing countries. Both decisions are related to meetings in Washington. The first, in 1946, has been described by Oliver Holmes who had a significant involvement in founding of ICA, and second in 1966 by Morris Rieger, one of organizers of Extraordinary Congress and an active participant in subsequent history of ICA. One of most significant features of Extraordinary Congress in 1966 was worldwide representation made possible by travel grants from Council on Library Resources. Thus, impact of representatives from developing countries was felt for first time, with a resulting emphasis on their needs. The author of a report to SAA on congress observed that the Congress appears to have wandered quite far from its basic theme of scholarly access. The resolutions were much less concerned with this than with urgent need for archival technical assistance to underdeveloped regions of world.1 These resolutions included recommendations 1 ) that UNESCO make regular provision in its budgets for technical assistance to developing countries; 2) that a permanent joint ICA-UNESCO technical assistance planning and coordinating group be established; 3) that there be compiled an international roster of archivists competent to undertake technical assistance missions, as a sort of archival peace corps; 4) that regional archival pilot projects be established in East and West Africa; 5) that a study of film preservation in tropics be undertaken by ICA; and 6) that regional branches of ICA be set up in Southeast Asia and Africa. Most of resolutions were based on a report on activities and problems of ICA by Charles Kecskemeti, executive secretary of ICA. He stressed importance of technical assistance to developing countries and need to create regional branches of ICA, which were provided for in constitution but had not been established because of lack of financial resources. He reviewed progress of publications relating to developing countries, chiefly series of Guides to Sources of History of Nations, commenced in 1959 with a subsidy from UNESCO, and manuals on archives in tropics (Y. Perotin, 1966), archives in Latin America (A. Tanodi, 1961), and on archival buildings and equipment (M. Duchein, 1966). He reported a project in UNESCO program for a pilot project to create a model archives service in an African country. He referred to studies on

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