Sister city

Sister cities or twin towns are local school and/or chamber of commerce programs designed to foster international communication and cooperation. Like the city version of a "pen pal", a city is assigned one or more similarly sized and situated international cities. Sister cities usually share characteristics, such as both being coastal cities or island-cities. The programs include exchange students or economic programs.

The Sister Cities program was begun in 1956 by Dwight Eisenhower. It was originally administered as part of the National League of Cities, but since 1967 has been a separate organization: Sister Cities International (SCI), which is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network creating and strengthening partnerships between U.S. and international communities in an effort to increase global cooperation at the municipal level, to promote cultural understanding and to stimulate economic development. SCI leads the movement for local community development and volunteer action by motivating and empowering private citizens, municipal officials and business leaders to conduct long-term programs of mutual benefit.

Sister cities also function on higher level as well (county, state, province). For example, Hainan Province of China befriends other states and provinces.

See also

• Twin cities, an unrelated term that describes two geographically proximal cities which function much like a single larger city.
• Twin towns, an idea that started in Europe.