Local governance is the cornerstone of participatory democracy - JAK

Accra, July 2, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday said an efficient and effective local governance at the grassroots level formed the cornerstone of participatory democracy.

"Participatory democracy cannot be practised efficiently and effectively without local governance at the grassroots level."

President Kufuor was speaking at a reception held in honour of the delegates attending the 12th Annual United States-Africa Sister Cities Conference at the Castle, Osu.

The seven-day conference, the third to be held in Africa is on the theme, "Strengthening Sister Cities in Africa: A Focus on HIV/AIDS Crises, Business, Trade Investment and Democratic Governance."

Senegal and Kenya are the other two countries that had hosted the conference, aimed to promote local community initiatives in line with decentralization as well as promote international peaceful co-existence as a prelude to improving international trade and investment.

The participating countries at the Conference included Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Luanda, Botswana and South Africa.

President Kufuor said the world was rapidly moving into an arena where the individual human being was being seen as the rational for government. He said democracy was fast gaining grounds all over the world and Africa was very much included in this awakening where governments were being made to acknowledge the rights of the individual citizens and assuming the responsibilities to serve people in their localities.

President Kufuor said: "You are all local governors serving the people at the grassroots. When the people are well served and empowered to pursue their responsibilities to assert their lives all over the world then the human being could become the justification for the decentralisation of governance."

Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said it was ideal to foster such relationships between the people among sister cities and Africa.

He said all the relationships had been between nations and officials at the governmental level but the sister cities relationships sought to bring about interaction among the people at the grassroots level.

Mr Adjei-Darko suggested that such relationship should also be established between cities and towns within particular countries to study and understand the customs and cultures of the various ethnic groups within a country in order to curtail the rampant conflicts on the African Continent.

Miss Shirley Rivens Smith, President of the US-Africa Sister Cities Conference, said the meeting was held in Accra because of the warm Ghanaian hospitality that Ghanaians had always shown to Americans who visited the country.

Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Vice President, who was one time the Chairman of the Tamale-Louisville, Kentucky Sister-Cities Relationship, is honorary patron of the conference.

A former US President Dwight Eisenhower, introduced the sister city concept in 1956, as a non-profit, non-governmental network and movement of citizens, corporations, NGOs and institutional partners in all countries around the world.

There are about 2,400 sister cities relationships formally registered world-wide.

In Ghana, nine cities and families are in relationships with sister cities in the United States.

These are Accra-Chicago, Tema-San Diego, Kumasi-Charlotte and Newark, Sekondi-Takoradi-Oakland and Boston, Cape Coast- Hanover Park, Tamale-Louisville, Bolgatanga- Glenarden, Ga District-Grand Rapids and Akwapim South District-Lansing.

The Accra Conference is being hosted by the Ghana Sister Cities Foundation and the Metropolitan City of Accra under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.