The possible benefits of freedom of information laws to the records management landscape in the ESARBICA region

This paper seeks to demonstrate how records and archives management in the Eastern and Southern African Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) can benefit from the enactment of freedom of information legislation if backed by political will, trained records and information management personnel and infrastructure. Examples of how properly crafted FOI legislation have or have not benefited records and archives management in other countries have been presented. The findings of this study show that freedom of information legislation could benefit records and archives management in the region by increasing employment opportunities for records and archives professionals, promoting the development of records management systems, formalization and standardization of records management practices and further training of practitioners, among other things