The Global Voice Represented at the IFLA Governing Board: A Study of the Last 19 Years

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of the geographical representation of IFLA’s Governing Board members over the past 19 years to identify regions and countries with and / or without the presence in IFLA’s unit responsible for its governance, financial and professional management bodies. This study with IFLA’s most important management unit can help to understand how the knowledge, culture, and experience of different regions of the world have been considered, valued and respected at IFLA. In order to map the participation of the regions, data from each IFLA Governing Board member from Africa, Asia and Oceania, and Latin America and Caribbean during the period from 2001 to 2019 was collected from IFLA Annual Reports (available online) and analysed using the Excel software with the Pivot Table resource. The original publication also includes information about the Governing Board members from Europe and North America. All the members of GB and their nationalities were considered in 9 periods of two-year terms of management, which totalized 186 members from 36 countries. These total members correspond to 105 individuals, of which 41,9% participated in only one term, 45,7% were elected for two terms, 7,6% for three terms and 4,8% for more than four terms. In terms of regional representation, Europe contributes 46% of the GB members, followed by North America with 29%, Asia & Oceania with 11% Africa with 10% and finally LAC with 4%. At the end some reflections are presented on possible strategies to achieve a balance in the composition of the main managing body of the most important library federation in the world.