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Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program
Sister Cities International has launched the Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (AUPAP), a three-year project to alleviate poverty in 25 African cities through water, sanitation, and health initiatives led by U.S. and African sister city programs. U.S. sister city programs will collaborate with their African counterparts to identify and address the most critical problems in these sectors, which form a barrier to sustained development in urban areas. This project is funded by a $7.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The sister cities network will capitalize on local members' technical and professional expertise; links to city government, academia, nonprofits, and the private sector; and the long-term, people-to-people relationships they have developed over time to create projects that are both technically sound and based at the grass-roots level. Sister Cities International will also gather a group of international development experts to aid in the planning and execution of the projects.
Sister Cities International is the only U.S.-based organization dedicated to creating long-term city-to-city relationships between U.S. and communities abroad. Created by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 at a White House summit, the organization is a leader in people-to-people exchanges with a network that boasts over 650 U.S. cities with more than 1,900 sister city relationships in 135 countries on six continents. Currently, the organization has 124 partnerships in 32 countries in Africa.
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