Padré Lydie Gnessougou Baroan-Dioumency (Head of Archives and Documentation, General Directorate of the Treasury and Public Accounts, Ivory Coast) has been honoured by the French Ministry of Culture. This award recognizes her powerful advocacy for archives in French-speaking West Africa over many years. In ICA she has been a member of the Committee on Best Practices and Standards (2006-12), the Expert Group on Archival Description (since 2012) and the Programme Commission (since 2013).
On 8 April Padré received the decoration of Knight (Chevalier) in the Order of Arts and Letters from Hervé Lemoine, Director of the Archives of France, at a ceremony in the Hotel d’Assy of the French National Archives in Paris. The ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of the Ivory Coast at UNESCO, representatives of the Embassy of the Ivory Coast in Paris, members of the Programme Commission, her husband and other invited guests. It was a very moving ceremony during which Padré spoke eloquently about her interesting and varied career.
Her many friends throughout the ICA network will be delighted to see that Padré’s tireless work for the cause of archives has been recognized in this way.
Hervé Lemoine, Padré Lydie Gnessougou Baroan-Dioumency