CITY DIPLOMACY WITHOUT STRATEGY: THE PARADOX OF SISTER CITIES IN BRAZIL

Sister city agreements are one of the most widespread instruments of international cooperation among Brazilian municipalities. Despite high formal participation, a large portion of these partnerships remain underutilized, limited to ceremonial exchanges or sporadic activities, with little capacity to generate concrete results for local development. In many cases, the agreements lack administrative continuity, strategic planning, integration with municipal public policies, and monitoring mechanisms. This underutilization represents a loss of economic, technological, institutional, and cultural opportunities. International experiences demonstrate that relationships between cities can foster investment attraction, technical cooperation, urban innovation, economic internationalization, tourism, and knowledge exchange. However, in the Brazilian context, the absence of permanent institutional structures and the limited technical capacity of municipalities significantly reduce the transformative potential of these partnerships. This policy brief argues that the main challenge does not lie in the sister-city program itself, but in how it is governed and integrated into local development strategies. The predominance of a symbolic and protocol-driven approach prevents these agreements from being transformed into operational tools for decentralized international cooperation. In this context, three recommendations are proposed: i) Strengthen the institutionalization of municipal international engagement; ii) Link sister city agreements to local strategic priorities; iii) Expand mechanisms for governance and inter-institutional cooperation.