Digital records as evidence to underpin global development goals. (HN)

该项目审查了记录管理(以及日益数字化的记录)在实现当前发展目标方面的关键作用。联合国可持续发展目标(SDGs)于2015年9月启动，这使得认识和解决政府官方证据基础管理和使用方式上的弱点变得越来越重要。衡量和监测可持续发展目标的计划是基于这样一种假设，即有可能获得有意义的数据，作为基准和消除贫穷的基础。不幸的是，经常会出现记录不完整、不准确、无法访问或完全丢失的情况，结果是从记录中得出的数据和统计数据是有缺陷的。向使用数字记录的快速过渡鼓励了旨在使记录和数据公之于众的“开放政府”倡议，并与之密切相关。同样，这与实现当前发展议程、确保政府更透明和更负责任有直接关系。然而，在数字环境中，如果没有国际标准定义的法律、政策、做法和技能的控制制度，计算机化的信息系统创建的记录即使在很短的时间内也不能保持可靠或可供查阅。如果不开发数字存储库，其中数字记录和数据可以随着时间的推移得到安全管理，就不能保证它们将保持可用或可靠。不幸的是，正是那些从实现可持续发展目标的进展中获益最多的国家，在建立有效的数据管理系统方面遇到了最大的困难。该项目以高级研究学院(SAS)、其网络和伙伴组织的专业知识为基础，目的是将学者、记录管理人员、档案管理员和一系列非政府组织聚集在一起，考虑数字记录和数据的管理如何有助于实现撒哈拉以南非洲的国际发展目标，特别是可持续发展目标。实现这些目标的一个重要因素是打击腐败，这严重阻碍了许多国家的司法、善政和发展。有效地管理记录本身不会阻止腐败，但如果没有可信的记录作为证据，反腐败目标就无法实现。因此，这将是该项目的一个重要专题重点。它的目标是通过专门的网络资源和编辑后的文章数量来传播其调查结果。该项目还将审议一套全球适用的数字记录管理协议的可行性，以帮助确保记录管理政策、原则和做法成为数字环境发展的一个核心方面。该项目的一个关键特点是专业知识的两个阶段的交叉交流。在第一阶段，讲习班将鼓励档案管理领域的专家(发达国家和发展中国家)和后殖民时代非洲的政治、经济和历史方面的学术专家之间进行对话。第二阶段将使它们能够与积极参与执行国际发展目标的人接触。因此，可衡量的结果将是这些对话产生的后续行动的程度，以及研究网络的直接成果在多大程度上被纳入决策进程。

This project examines the crucial role of records management (and increasingly digital records) in the attainment of current development goals. The launch of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, has made it increasingly essential to recognise and address weakness in the way governments' official evidence base is managed and used. Plans to measure and monitor the SDGs are based on the assumption that it will be possible to access meaningful data as a basis for benchmarking and eradicating poverty. Unfortunately, it is often the case that records are incomplete, inaccurate, inaccessible or lost completely, with the result that data and statistics derived from the records are flawed. The rapid transition to the use of digital records has encouraged and been closely linked to 'open government' initiatives, aimed at making records and data publicly available. Again, this has a direct bearing on the achievement of current development agendas in ensuring that government is more transparent and accountable. Yet in the digital environment, records created by computerised information systems do not remain reliable or accessible, even for short periods of time, without a control regime of laws, policies, practices and skills as defined in international standards. If digital repositories are not developed, where digital records and data can be managed securely through time, there is no guarantee that they will remain available or reliable. Unfortunately, it is precisely those countries that stand to gain most from progress towards the SDGs that have the greatest problems putting effective data management systems in place.The objective of this, which project builds on the expertise within the School of Advanced Study (SAS), its networks and partner organisations, is to bring together academics, records managers and archivists and a range of NGOs to consider how the management of digital records and data can assist in the achievement international development goals, particularly the SDGs, in sub-Saharan Africa. An important element in the achievement of these goals is the combatting of corruption, something that severely hinders justice, good-governance and development in many countries. Managing records efficiently will not in itself halt corruption, but anti-corruption goals cannot be achieved without trustworthy records as evidence. As such this will be an important thematic focus of the project. It aims to disseminate its findings via and dedicated web resource and an edited volume of articles. The project will also consider the feasibility of a globally-applicable set of protocols for digital records management to help ensure that records management policies, principles and practices become a core aspect of development in the digital environment. A key feature of the project is a two-stage cross-fertilisation of expertise. In the first stage the workshops will be to encourage a dialogue between experts in the area of records management (from both the developed and the developing world) and academic experts on the politics, economics and history of post-colonial Africa. The second stage will allow them to engage with those actively involved in implementing international development goals. As such, measurable outcomes will be extent of the follow-up initiatives that emerge from these dialogues, and the extent to which the immediate outputs of the research network are fed into the policy-making process.