But the idea of a central co-ordinated microfilming programme was not abando
ned. In 1988 a working part of experts was created to devise a strategy and work
out concrete projects in collaboration with Unesco and from this the current
International Microfilming Programme for Developing Countries has
developed.49
It goes without saying that many effective international relations have been
established outside the framework of ICA. A common history, the existence of
similar institutions, a kindred language, these are factors which quite naturally
cause bi- and multilateral archival relations to come into being. Some of them go
back as far as the nineteenth century. To mention only a very old and illustrative
one out of many examples of such a co-operation, that between the Scandina
vian countries which is now expanding to include the Baltic region as well.50
Since the late sixties intraregional archival co-operation has been promoted
by ICA by means of its Regional Branches in which archival institutions are
united by a common geographical and frequently also cultural and linguistic
background. The establishment of such regional organisations had already been
possible under ICA's first constitution. Their coming into being, however, had
been prevented firstly by the fact that ICA and its founding fathers -being
Europeans- in the fifties and early sixties were primarily interested in profes
sional issues and secondly that by that time, in a sense, the extra-European
regions (except Latin America) were involved in a process of taking shape as a
result of the wave of decolonisation.
Building upon the above-mentioned report by Charles Kecskeméti,54 the
Washington congress (1966) encouraged the founding of Regional Branches in
all developing regions of the world, expecting that such organisations would
contribute substantially to solving the whole range of archival problems.
The first Regional Branch was SARBICA, the Southeast Asia Regional Branch,
which was founded in 1968 as the result of a mainly Malaysian initiative.
In 1993 the world -except good old Europe- was encompassed by a covering net
of Regional Branches when in Beijing EASTICA was established. As to Europe,
the Montreal congress (1992) allowed the creation of a Co-ordinating Board for
the European Programme.
The continuous struggle for money in order to enable international archival
activities is in fact nothing more than an enlarged replica of the battle which
every association of archivists must fight on a national level and in which every
leading archivist is permanently engaged in his own environment. Complaints
about lack of understanding on the side of the authorities (who seem to be rude
all over the world) and, consequently, about the low status of archivists,52 lack of
170
money and so on are standard in archivists' conversations all over the world.
When, halfway through the sixties ICA felt that the newly independent
countries should be helped in designing and setting up their own archival struc
tures, it was realised that major financial efforts would be necessary. In 1970
ICA's Executive Committee created a permanent working group in the field of
archival techniques and related assistance to developing countries. This group,
which should evolve into the current Commission on Archival Development
(CAD), was ICA's prime instrument in dealing with under-development in the
archival sphere.
In order to expand the financial basis for development projects CAD pro
posed the founding of a special fund. This International Archival Development
Fund (FIDA) was established at the international conference on the planning of
archival development which was held in 1975 in Dakar, Senegal.
The prospects were promising. At that time the industrial world was reaching
a level of unknown affluence. Not only the traditional suppliers of money in the
public sphere, such as national governments and world-wide or regional inter
governmental organisations, but also business companies, professional institu
tions and associations, private foundations and individuals came into
consideration as potential donors. The Fund would encourage the intended
donors to contribute by combining a quick and flexible policy with high quality
projects, to be developed by prominent experts. Under the responsibility of ICA
and with help of the united specialised knowledge of the Fund, emergency situ
ations would be identified and dealt with as quickly as possible. Regional
projects, fact-finding missions, the preparation and publication of finding-aids
covering particular regions, short-term consultant missions, regional training
centres, overseas fellowships, conferences, seminars, all kinds of activities would
be financed by the Fund, at least partly.
Alas, the Fund did not remotely meet the high expectations. Response was
low and the scarce income hardly outweighed the costs. Except Yugoslavia,
Spain, Bulgaria, Germany and Sweden, no European country made a major
donation. Only a small number of developing countries such as Algeria, Iran,
and Nigeria brought in substantial donations. Not only the rich countries are to
blame for the failure of the Fund, although their reluctance to pay was decisive.
CAD also had difficulty in receiving information from national archivists in
developing countries about their archives and holdings, and about the situation
with respect to records management. Without this kind of information it was
impossible to draw up the kind of development plans with which CAD could
apply to intended donors.53
The differences between nations and the difficulty it takes to align them come
also to the fore in ICA's most conspicuous activities: the quadrennial
International Congresses on Archives, and, to a lesser degree, the CITRA
171
DE PROFESSIE
2.12 Intraregional self-help
2.13 Trying to fund development
49 Franz, "Mikrofilmprogramm", p. 16.
50 Information by courtesy of Mrs. Pirkko Rastas, Finland.
51 See note 40.
52 Comfort A. Ukwu, Janus 2 (1992), p. 22: "Unfortunately, there is the general feeling that technical [archi
val] work is something for drop-outs"; according to NAB 91 (1987), p. 49 an archivist from a so called
JAN VAN DEN BROEK FROM BRUSSELS TO BEIJING
2.14 Congresses and Round Tables
developing country complained that in his country mothers and children preferred to keep silent about the
fact that their husbands and fathers work in an archives.
53 A harsh judgement has been made by N.H. Kulkarnee, "The ICA and the Development of Archives",
Archivum 29 (1982), pp. 174-177: "No suitable response can be expected from apathetic or illinformed
non-professionals heading the archives".