The History of Sister Cities

'The Sister City Program is an important resource to the negotiations of governments in letting people themselves give expression to their common desire for friendship, goodwill and cooperation for a better world for all.'

Dwight D. Eisenhower
President of the United States of America

Sister Cities was initially created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House conference on citizen diplomacy.  President Eisenhower envisioned an organisation that could be the hub of peace and prosperity by creating bonds between people from different cities around the world.  By forming these relationships, President Eisenhower reasoned that people of different cultures could celebrate and appreciate their differences and build partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts.

The Sister Cities programme is designed as a means for cultural exchange. A community of any size decides to join with a community in another nation to learn more about one another. Generally sister city partnerships share similar demographics and town size. 

The Sister City mission is to "promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation — one individual, one community at a time.”