Les liaisons fructueuses - RUIG-GIAN

Vietnamese «boat people» wading ashore in Malaysia, 1978. Photo : UNHCR.
McDonald : This project had been devised by historians
and archivists with the major aim of opening
for study a large amount of new research material.
However, despite its historical orientation, this
research project was not limited to academic objectives.
Indeed, it had also been devised with the aim
of providing access to “institutional memory” on
refugee issues and the work of the UNHCR. This
work provides diplomats, international organisations
and NGO experts with information and knowledge
enabling them to better face current crises and challenges.
This project has shown the extreme importance of
archives and their use for policy analysis. Nowadays,
decision-making is being made through e-mails.
This information is rarely recorded in formal letters
or memoranda. We lose significant information
every day, since e-mails are sent to specific individuals
and seldom retained in the long term. Institutional
memory disappears with these new means
of communication unless preserved in electronic
archives. We have to evolve from “individual memory”
to long-lasting “institutional memory”, from
which we can continue to draw lessons that can be
relevant for policy-makers.
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