CPAFFC Working Group Attends Sino-African Initiative Conference

ACPAFFC working group led by its Vice President Xie Yuan attended the 2013 Sino-African Initiative （SAI） Conference sponsored by Sister Cities International （SCI） of the United States and organized by the Eastern Africa Sister Cities （EASC） in Nairobi， Kenya， from January 31 to February 2. About 60 officials and representatives of sister cities associations from China， the United States， Kenya， Nigeria and Malawi participated in the meeting aimed at implementing poverty alleviation projects in African cities through Sino-African-US trilateral sister city partnerships.

The SAI program was proposed by the SCI in 2012 and funded through a grant from the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the program， from February 2013 to February 2014， three development and poverty alleviation projects were to be implemented by three selected SAI trilateral partnerships， namely， Denver （US）-Kunming（China）-Nairobi， Asheville/Raleigh（US）-Xiangyang （China）-Osogbo （Nigeria） and Urbana （US）-Haizhu District of Guangzhou （China）-Zomba （Malawi）.

The American city in each group has sister city ties respectively with the Chinese and the African cities it is working with. To formally launch the projects， representatives of the three groups were invited to the conference to discuss implementation ways. The Kunming and Xiangyang Municipal Governments respectively sent leading officials of their Foreign Affairs Office to attend the conference.

CPAFFC Vice President Xie Yuan addressed the opening ceremony， saying that， in today’s world where countries are becoming more interdependent， exchanges among international friendship cities played an important role in enhancing friendship and cooperation and promoting world peace and harmonious development. This conference would surely help the participants to learn from each another and share experiences. It would be a beneficial experiment to provide assistance for the development of democracy in African society by bringing together non-governmental organizations and communitybased organizations.

Xie hoped participants would cooperate on the basis of equality and mutual benefit so as to achieve substantial results and enhance friendship and cooperation among cities and citizens.

SCI President and CEO Mary D. Kane said the SAI was an innovative program designed to provide a unique platform for cities of the United States， China and Africa to collaborate on economic development and urban poverty issues. She hoped it would help promote cooperation and exchanges of experience， bring in more participation by communities and individuals， motivate everyone to give full play to their potential for improving urban life and set an example for future trilateral cooperation in urban pov- erty alleviation and development.

EASC Director James Shikwati presided over the conference and gave a briefing about the EASC. He said it was established in August 2011 with the aim of coordinating and developing international cooperation and sister city ties involving East African cities and communities， promoting experience sharing and helping Africa solve practical problems through projects in the fields of culture， education， youth， trade， economy and personnel training.

The conference included workshops， on-the-spot investigations， expertise and training sessions. On the last day of the conference， drawing the results of their discussions the representative of each group briefed about the work plan on its selected project and signed with the SCI the memorandum of understanding on cooperation. The SCI will provide US$100，000 for each project， covering implementation， and travel and meeting expenses.

The Denver-Kunming-Nairobi group will cooperate on improving sanitation of a primary school in Nairobi； Kunming will be responsible for training and exchange activities.

The Asheville/Raleigh-Xiangyang-Osogbo group will improve the facilities in the Osogbo medical center， Xiangyang handling the training and sending of experts. The Urbana-Haizhu District-Zomba group will cooperate in improving the refuse treatment system in Zomba.