The Iberarchives Programme is pleased to announce the completion of the “Diagnosis and report on diversification of funding sources for the Iberarchives Programme” prepared by the consultant Marcelo L. Murta.
The viability of the Programme, currently comprising 18 countries, is guaranteed by a common fund made up of contributions from member countries and additional cooperation funds for the fulfilment of the Programme’s objectives and in accordance with the SEGIB Operational Manual. Even so, funding problems are structural in the countries of the Ibero-American region, with major budgetary and political difficulties in terms of providing incentives for the archives sector, as these are among the sectors that suffer the most cuts and have the lowest budgets in the public administrations. All of this has been aggravated by the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, which is undoubtedly having economic consequences in the States.
For this reason, the Intergovernmental Council included in the Annual Operational Plan the preparation of a diagnosis and report on the diversification of funding sources to ensure the sustainability of the Programme.
The consultancy work was carried out between December 2020 and March 2021, in three interrelated stages:
- Prior immersion through documentary and institutional analysis by the consultant, to understand the situation and functioning of the Iberarchives Programme and its contextualisation in the field of Ibero-American Cooperation.
- Interviews with national representatives to understand the Ibero-American context.
- Study on the types of existing funding sources at national, regional and international level for a programme such as Iberarchivos.
Throughout the process, the consultant held meetings with the Executive Committee and the Intergovernmental Council of Iberarchivos, in which progress was presented and important discussions were held.
The model proposed by the consultant is a model based on three stages: consolidation, expansion and rooting/maintenance and covers the years 2021-2025.
Iberarchivos would like to thank Marcelo L. Murta for his excellent work and the collaboration of the national archival authorities. We are very excited to start working on the new horizons that open up thanks to this study and to continue working for the preservation of the archives of the Ibero-American community.
You can consult a brief summary of the action plan for the years 2021-2025 here: ACTION PLAN