The idea of sister cities started in the United States with the White House Summit on Citizen Diplomacy held on September 1 1956. The summit, which was meant to organize sister cities programmes as cities programmes as cities in the US reached out to former enemies of the Second World War such as Germany and Japan. A sister city is created when two cities, towns or communities from different countries decide to join together to learn more about one another and to develop friendly exchanges by proposing a formal affiliation. The Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation, an umbrella body of the Sister Cities International, currently has a membership of twenty countries with Ghana having the biggest number of twenty sister cities. The foundation operates in key programme areas such as arts and culture, sustainable development, trade and tourism, and leadership development.
The Accra conference was held on the theme: “Strengthening Sister Cities Partnership in Africa through peace and citizen diplomacy in meeting the Millennium Development Goals for change.” It was attended by about five hundred and fifty participants from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Togo. Participants from Sister Cities International in the US and the UK also attended. In Ghana, representatives from more than forty metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, traditional rulers and students from some selected senior high schools and tertiary institutions also took part in the five day-conference. It is recalled that at the twelfth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development also recently held in Accra, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, said not even one African country was likely to achieve the MDGs by the 2015 deadline. The theme of the conference was therefore appropriate. It involved metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, traditional rulers, politicians, academicians and the youth in discussions on how everyone can help to achieve the MDGs.
All these groups of people play a very significant role in development but are often sidelined when issues concerning the MDGs are discussed. The concept of grassroots participation will not only help masses to understand the MDGs but it will also go a long way to help in the achievement of the goals. The conference also provided an opportunity for sharing of ideas among the mayors and other community leaders from participating countries. This will help to create international partnerships that foster economic development, cross-cultural exchanges and global cooperation.
Another heartwarming outcome of the conference was the resolution by participants of the youth summit to desist from being used by politicians to achieve their selfish interests and to partner government and stakeholders to move Africa to a different level. The sister cities initiative is an avenue through which towns and cities in Ghana can market the potential and investment opportunities in their various localities. For Africa Global Sister city Foundation to achieve any meaningful purpose, cities should shift from the current practice where all sister cities relationships are fostered with only cities outside Africa.
This relationship should not be seen as an opportunity to sell our problems to sister cities. Since most cities and towns on the continent are faced with similar challenges, it will only be helpful to come together to see how best to sole them. Besides, after forty-five years of a seemingly losing battle by the African Union to unite the continent, the African Global Sister Cities Foundation is one of the ways of bringing the African people and cities together for meaningful cooperation and development.
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