Kludjeson secures US$7.5m
Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation (AGSCF), an African development service (people-to-people diplomacy network) organisation, has been granted US$7.5 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the United States, through Sister Cities International (SCI) in Washington DC to help alleviate poverty in Africa, under the Africa Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme (AUPAP).
Prince Kwame Kludjeson, President-Chair of the AGSCF, who has been instrumental in the award of the grant, returned from the just-ended Sister Cities International Annual Conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the Memorandum of Understanding was signed.
The grant is targeted at suitable water, sanitation, and health facilities for the urban poor and communities that have partnerships with US cities.
The grant program, to be managed by SCI on behalf of the Gates Foundation, will be executed in Africa in partnership with the Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation.
The grant contract and program details were first discussed by the President & CEO of SCI, Mr. Patrick Madden and his team, on one hand, and Prince Kwame Kludjeson, President-Chair of AGSCF, on the other, at a meeting in Washington, DC, USA from 27th - 29th April, 2009.
Ms. Melanie Walker, Senior Program Officer (Global Development) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, subsequently paid a working visit to Accra, Ghana, to meet with Mr. Kludjeson and his AGSCF staff for final discussions on the grant award.
Ghana, for reason of hosting the programme, would be granted two projects in two communities, and one each to five other African countries.
Under the African Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (AUPAP) agreement, the SCI has created an Africa Affairs Department, with two staff members who would stay permanently in Ghana, and work directly with AGSCF staff.
The future of Africa, research has shown, is urbanisation. In Africa alone, it is expected that the urban growth rate will be five per cent. The African Commission Report of 2005 found that 72 per cent of African city populations live in slums defined as “households that lack access to improved water or sanitation, security of tenure, durability of housing and/or sufficient living space.”
Current estimates indicate that an expected 300 million additional people, the equivalent of the 2007 population of the United States, will dwell in African slums by 2020.
If this trend continues, it has been estimated that settlements in slums would bring pressure on environmental sanitation and health management. The result will be poor and indiscriminate disposal of solid and liquid waste that causes water and air-borne diseases or epidemics.
Bill & Melinda Gates have been touched by the millions of people, especially in developing countries, who die form preventable and manageable clinical diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, malaria and tuberculosis.
Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation is the product of eight years of intense preparation and negotiations, with the agenda of getting Africa fully represented within the Sister Cities International fraternity, worldwide.
This effort was recognised by the world body, SCI, by the granting of the charter to the AGSCF as a citizen diplomacy (people-to-people network) organisation, at its maiden international conference held last year in Accra (May 2008). The charter gave the mandate to the AGSCF to coordinate and promote the programmes of all sister city partnerships in Africa.
Last year's landmark conference highlighted the capacity of the AGSCF as a veritable NGO, and thereby paved the way for this AUPAP grant.
Sister Cities International is the only U.S. based organisation dedicated to creating long-term city-to-city relationships between U.S. and communities abroad.