As part of the actions generated to design and plan action strategies in times of COVID-19, the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) convened a videoconference meeting on Thursday 7 May, chaired by its Secretary for Cooperation, María Andrea Albán, to analyse the impact of the global health crisis on SEGIB’s cultural programmes. The meeting was attended by the Chairpersons and Technical Secretaries of the twelve programmes of SEGIB’s Ibero-American Cultural Space.
On behalf of Iberarchivos, Silvestre de Almeida, President of the Intergovernmental Council, and Cristina Díaz, Technical Secretary of the Programme, participated in this virtual meeting and shared with the rest of the attendees the obligatory delay in the publication of the new call for grants until normality is restored in the region. They also informed the rest of the cultural programmes of the recommendations of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme to preserve the documentary memory of this pandemic, a role that archives should play in a leading role.
It is important to note that around 50 people from all the programmes of the Ibero-American Cultural Space were present for the analysis of these issues. During the videoconference, each one reported on the situation of their respective programmes and on the impact of the pandemic on the cultural policies of Ibero-America, all of them stressing that Culture is a backbone of cohesion and an opportunity in this case to emerge from this crisis without regional differences.
