ROI: Show Them the Money

At the end of February I had the opportunity to attend and present at our Southern California (SOCAL) sister cities regional meeting. More than 100 citizen leaders assembled from Bakersfield, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Monica, San Diego, Torrance, among others – a great representation of the region.

Stelle Feuers, SOCAL’s leader, captained the day as the organizer and brought together a range of speakers to focus on economic development. Many of our local sister city programs are faced with showing municipal leaders how the local program delivers a “Return on Investment” for the community. Whether that means jobs (the magic word at the moment in politics) or actual revenue back to the city, this is a challenge for small nonprofits powered by volunteers. Some of our member cities have been doing economic work for years, but for some this is new ground to tread. The SOCAL meeting was a terrific mix of networking and a range of ideas, models, and best practices on how local sister city programs can accomplish this. Here’s an overview of the program:

· The morning started with well-known Adlei Wertman from USC. A compelling speaker who spoke about his experience as a social entrepreneur and the work of his USC program as it intersects business students looking to change the world.

· Susan Herlin from Louisville spoke about decades of economic and cultural work with their sister city, Kumasi, Ghana. Susan’s overall message was: slow and steady, success won’t happen overnight.

· SCI Board Member Carol Lopez from Santa Fe offered a terrific overview of her annual Santa Fe Folk Art Market. Her message: tangible micro-business opportunities can have a tremendous impact on individual artists and their native communities.

· Dave Zanetta from Long Beach gave a terrific summary of their work with their Chinese sister city. His message: get creative with your partnerships and get the word out about your efforts.

I had an opportunity to give the attendees and preview of some new research Sister Cities International undertook this winter on economic development and a range of economic development programs. My message: don't undervalue what your sister city program is delivering to your city.

Stay tuned for the roll-out of our economic development research in the next few weeks.

Reflections from Ghana

Guest Blogger: Jim Doumas, Executive Vice President, Sister Cities International

It was close to one year ago that Sister Cities International, (SCI) received a three-year, $7.5 million grant to fund the Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (AUPAP). This grant enables SCI to assist our members to develop 25 water, sanitation and health projects with twinned partners on the continent of Africa. In addition, the project focuses on assisting the development and increasing the capacity of Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation, (AGSCF), an organization based in Ghana dedicated to increasing citizen-to-citizen exchanges on the continent of Africa with the world.

I am excited about this opportunity for so many reasons. Above all, I welcome the opportunity to work directly with African communities and assist them with achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. This is a remarkable opportunity to demonstrate to the world that the sister cities network is a dynamic force that changes lives on a variety of levels.

Following the grant announcement, the past eight months have been a whirlwind of activity. If you haven’t heard, we opened an SCI office in Accra, Ghana, hired various staff and consultants to assist with the implementation of AUPAP and, of course, selected our seven Phase I cities.

Last month, the Phase I cities and their African partners assembled in Accra for an intense six-day project work plan training session. For the first time, all the AUPAP leaders were in one room to discuss their projects and learn from each other. This was also an opportunity for AGSCF to illustrate their role within the project and to discuss how best to work together to develop sister city capacity-building within Africa.

What I saw during this week was a group of dedicated volunteers and professionals working long, intense hours to strengthen their proposals. While most of the U.S. participants had previously met, this training session was the first time all of the African citizen participants had an opportunity to work together in-person. Looking around the room I was reminded that nothing replaces face-to-face interaction and saw people-to-people interaction in Africa as an additional catalyst for creative ideas to help improve AUPAP. The groups shared their project designs, architectural schematics and their community outreach plans. It was apparent that the African city program managers have taken on a key leadership role. The communities illustrated how the local community committees are drawing from all areas of the community (private, public, NGO), far beyond their traditional sister city committees which is a critical component of the AUPAP project.

With the training session behind us, SCI staff and members have turned their attention to AUPAP Phase II which will increase the number of cities from seven to 25. SCI is also assisting AGSCF as they finalize plans for an international conference in Accra in May, and a parallel track on AUPAP at the SCI’s Annual Conference in Albuquerque this July at our Annual Conference. It is at this moment that I stop, take a breath and reflect on all that has been accomplished and all that is yet to be accomplished. I left Accra with a tremendous sense of excitement for our members and their future work with our partners in Africa and a sense that Sister Cities is on the precipice of something great.