By: Lamin B. Darboe
Information Officer
Ministry of Public Service (MoPS)
Dr. Proscovia Svard
National Record Services (NRS) last week hosted an associate professor in Archives and Information Sciences from the Department of History at Sorbonne University, in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Speaking to this mediumon Friday at the NRS office in Banjul shortly after her audience with the senior management team NRS, Dr. Proscovia Svard said she was in the country to learn more about the country’s Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparation Commission (TRRC), part of her research.
“I’m interested in the TRRC report – to know how the findings have been democratized to promote reconciliation and educate the people in this post-conflict context, and to learn about the conflict that caused human rights violations in the country,” she explained.
Among other findings, she said she found out how the process was concluded and how the documentation was handled.
Dr. Svard expressed the belief that her findings will promote peace-building and reconciliation in The Gambia. “If it goes well, it can improve the lives of Gambians. The Gambia has a wonderful historical opportunity to create records over the atrocities that were committed by the last regime,” she asserted.
The visiting associate professor applauded her hosts (NRS staff)for making her visit a success by generously sharing their experiences and information.
According to Dr. Svard, she made similar visits to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, in her pursuit of work on African TRCs and their documentation processes.
Dr. Svard’s research interests include enterprise content management, records management, information culture, e-government development, public sector information (PSI), long-term preservation of digital information, truth and reconciliation commissions and their documentation processes, the role of archives in enhancing accountability and transparency in government institutions, information access and the link to democracy and development.
