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History

Cities, counties, provinces, regions, municipalities… there is a very long record of international co-operation and friendship between infra-national authorities. Across Europe, since the end of World War Two in 1945, a huge number of citizen to citizen twinning links have been established, to promote peace and understanding. Worldwide, there are many successful "sister city" links (e.g. between US and Japanese or Chinese cities) which aim to build friendship and promote cultural links.

But growing stronger ever since the 1970s, there has been a powerful new movement of links between local authorities from the North, in particular Europe, and those of the South – mainly Africa, Latin America, and large parts of Asia.

This new wave of partnerships and twinnings is based not only on building friendship and understanding – important as these are – but on a strong commitment to achieve practical results and long-lasting local development.

There is no single agreed definition of "development". In the words of Mabub ul Haq, founder of the annual Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):

"The objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives."

To achieve this objective, however, people need to be free from extreme poverty and deprivation, have access to good basic services, and live within a decent environment.

In many cases, local and regional authorities are the driving force behind the establishment of twinnings and partnerships for development. However, in several countries, the national government has funded programmes and initiatives to support local/regional government partnership initiatives. Furthermore, the national associations of local and regional governments are often involved in these initiatives, either as a development co-operation partner themselves, or as a facilitator.

In more recent years, the European Union has started to focus more fully on the role and potential of local and regional government, both at a policy level, and through some financial support. Funding programmes such as Asia-Urbs and Urb-AL have stimulated many new project-based partnerships between European cities and those in other continents.