About Us
‘Over the years, important records have deteriorated considerably, been tampered with or even disappeared. The lack of accurate and accessible information hinders efficient personnel administration as well as long-term staff development for capacity building. It also hampers effective planning and implementation of development programmes and leads to mismanagement of finances and the inability of government to maintain accountability. Reform in this area will lay the basis for other public sector reform programmes, the introduction of computerisation and the restructuring of manual information systems.'
Governance Reform Secretariat, Sierra Leone
International efforts to reduce poverty, control corruption, strengthen democracy, improve public services and support transparency and accountability in government all rely on authentic and trustworthy records. Citizens suffer when records of property ownership, court proceedings, licences, registrations and medical treatment are inaccurate or cannot be found. Government funds, received mainly from taxes, can be misappropriated or misused when the records of financial transactions are not properly kept. Public sector reform programmes and the provision of services such as education and healthcare require accurate records as a basis for planning and delivery. Information and communication technology systems cannot achieve their goals if the information they contain is not reliable; protecting electronic records generated by these systems requires new skills.
The Trust was established in 1989 to respond to widespread and progressive deterioration in record keeping in the developing countries. As technology has an increasing impact on the way that records are created, used and stored, the Trust has committed itself to supporting the transition from paper to electronic records. It draws upon extensive field experience and an international network of professional contacts to serve citizens in countries around the world through helping to build evidence-based governance. As a non-profit organisation governed by Trustees, the Trust’s work is funded through grants and contracts. There are three interrelated streams of activities:
The Trust works with governments to help build sustainable laws, policies, systems, procedures and capacity for creating and managing trustworthy records as evidence. See a description of our Consultancy Services.
It creates training and guidance material that is freely available. See a description of our Education and Training activities.
It studies the relationship between records management and development. See a description of our Development Research programme.
For more information about the Trust, see lists of our Trustees and of our Staff and view our Governance Documents.
