Ever since its creation in 1948, under the auspices of UNESCO, the International Councilon Archives (ICA) has provided significant technical and professional assistance to archivists and archival institutions in the world. By way of studies, conferences, expert missions, elaboration of norms and standards and the sharing of information, the ICA has played an essential role in raising awareness of governments, civil society and the international community of the importance of archives.

This manual is a practical guide, which draws the attention of officials, staff and volunteers of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the value of their records and offers advice on their management and preservation. Some of these records are indeed of crucial importance for the history of both the organizations themselves and the societies concerned.

The benefits of good records management within a public or private institution are well known: gain of time and space, legal and administrative memory, an informed vision of past decisions and transparency of information. In the electronic environment the safeguarding of records in the medium and long term has become more complex; in order to ensure preservation, records management must begin in the early stage of the document’s life cycle. Therefore, the guide also provides simple and effective advice to meet this need.