Houston African Forum Pre-Event to Sister Cities International Conference

Sister Cities International is hosting an Africa Forum during the 2019 Annual conference beginning July 17th – 19th at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in Houston, Texas.

The African Forum will be held offsite at the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs of Texas Southern University, 9:00 am July 17, 2019.

Globally, this event will allow participants and collaborative partners to find out how to build partnerships with Africa. The Houston-Luanda Sister Cities Association, the only African sister City of Houston will have a special platform to share the importance of this special Year of Return, #1619-2019, forever connecting Angola to the United States.

Global participants will meet with SCI representatives who will identify potential Global Sister City partnerships and share best practices for effective African sister city relationships.

The African Forum will begin with SCI presenting keynote speaker, Mr. Jerome Ringo, the Goodwill Ambassador for the Pan African Parliament. Then, there will be the session on the “African Consuls in the U.S. : A Resource for Development”. During this session, participants will hear from consuls, including the Honorable Julia Machado, the Consul General of Angola; the Honorable Khaled Rizk, the Consul of Egypt; and the Honorable Jack Webb, who is the Honorary Consul of Ghana.

This event will also have a session on “Partners for Africa!”. Mr. Christian Epps, the founder & CEO of Lights, Camera, Diaspora! and Dr. Christian Ulasi the Interim Dean of Academic Affairs at the Barbara-Jordan Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs.

This forum will enhance the friendship and collaboration between Africa and the United States, while shedding light on innovative ways to work together to build strong, lasting relationships. The entire African continent presents many opportunities for U.S. sister cities, but only currently represents 150 sister cities partnerships.

Brenda Brumfield, Sister Cities International, Northern California Representative is no stranger to Sacramento, Capitol City of California. We await you bringing the good energy from the Houston African Forum toward establishing tangible work plans during the 9th Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference, to increase utilization of SCI throughout California and beyond.

Together, we must expand the best practices from Sister Cities International to help address food insecurity, expand support to schools, medical clinics, youth education and cultural exchanges.

With robust international technology access and increased stable governments throughout the Africa Continental Trade Bloc, Sister Cities International has the capacity to take advantage of new business environments and strengthen municipal development in a positive way.