Local Government Minister, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, has stated that no meaningful development can take place without the collaboration between traditional rulers and local government authorities. He underlined that local government reforms and decentralisation in the country had placed greater responsibility on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, as well as traditional rulers, to collaborate with other stakeholders to provide the needed guidance for effective governance. The minister was addressing participants in the Second African Sister Cities international conference in Accra. Six hundred participants drawn from the continent and other parts of the world are attending the conference. The theme for the conference is: “Forging stronger partnership between African local government authorities and African traditional rulers for sustainable economic development through Global Partnership”. Chireh said the Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation, in line with the vision of the Sister Cities International, sought to achieve international peace and security through the people and communities of Africa by promoting closer ties and friendship between different people and communities across the globe. He said the conference had been designed to promote good governance, sustainable development and global partnership and would also help achieve the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Wulugunaba and President of the National House of Chiefs, Naa John S. Nabila, called on local government authorities and traditional rulers to work hand in hand to achieve the sustainable development they were yearning for. The Board Chairman of the Sister Cities International, Mr Michael Hyatt, said the organisation was a people-to-people network which was mandated to create, strengthen and promote sister cities partnerships among African communities and cities in other parts of the world. Source: Daily Graphic