Success factors and the city-to-city partnership management process – from strategy to alliance capability

International city-to-city (C2C) partnerships, also known as twinning or sister cities, have evolved from their beginnings as a facilitating instrument of international friendship and cultural exchange at the local level, to a powerful tool for capacity building, learning, and economic and social development in developing countries. In recent years research findings from both academic and practitioner studies have provided much-needed insights into the failure rate and factors that contribute to the sustainability and success of such relationships. But to apply these principles, cities need guidelines and a formal policy and process framework to conclude sustainable relationships and manage them successfully. This paper draws on recent studies in South Africa and the United States of America, and frames a C2C partnership as a strategic alliance entered into between two or more cities. It applies principles from the management literature on strategic alliances to the field of C2C cooperation and proposes a management and planning model which municipalities involved in international C2C partnerships can use to ensure the success of individual relationships. This model consists of six steps: strategy formulation, identification of potential partners, evaluation and selection of potential partners, negotiation of the alliance and agreement, implementation, and the embedding of knowledge which leads to alliance capability and continued alliance success. The paper suggests that C2C cooperation can make a major development contribution and that application of this model can effectively increase relationship success at the local level.