On 8 and 9 April 2021, the 24th Virtual Meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of Iberarchives was held, with the participation of the National Archival Authorities of the 18 member countries of the Programme, as well as Enrique Vargas, coordinator of the Ibero-American Cultural Space of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), Diego Mayoral, representative of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Carmen Marcos, representative of the Organisation of Ibero-American States (OEI), as well as Cristina Díaz, Technical Secretary of Iberarchives.
Silvestre Almeida Lacerda, President of the Intergovernmental Council of Iberarchives, and Enrique Vargas, from the Ibero-American General Secretariat, were in charge of opening this virtual forum, held in this modality due to the current conditions of the pandemic generated by Covid-19. The National Archives of Costa Rica was in charge of the organisation and technical planning of the meeting.
During this meeting, a breakdown was made of the activities carried out during the year 2020 according to the Annual Operational Plan, framed in the Strategic Plan 2019-2021, which governs the actions of Iberarchivos and decisions were taken aimed at jointly addressing the crisis caused by COVID-19.
The representatives of the General National Archives of Argentina, Peru and Costa Rica continue as members of the Executive Committee of the Programme.
Among the most important activities of the meeting, the 22nd Call for Grants for archival projects was resolved, and 23 projects were approved, which will receive funding for their implementation during the course of this year.
In addition, a new call for applications, number XXIII, was approved, with a deadline for applications beginning on 16 April and ending on 30 September. Both the new call and the resolution of the grants from the previous call will be published in the coming days on the Iberarchivos website: www.iberarchivos.org.
Once again, this forum was an open and nourished space, with important contributions on archival matters, in which technologies allowed to be the bridge to strengthen bonds of solidarity for the promotion and dissemination of the documentary heritage of Ibero-America, a commitment that has been ratified by each of the attendees.