The Best Overall Award recognizes outstanding achievement by a city’s sister city program in 2021. Winning applicants will demonstrate some or all of the following:

• Regular exchanges among many or all of their partnerships
• Exchanges across many sectors, including youth, education, arts, culture, economic development, technical assistance, and humanitarian work
• Inclusion of a broad array of organizations in their community, and partner community, including municipal government, businesses, nonprofits, academia, cultural organizations, trade associations, and civic groups.
• Diversity of their local communities and international sister cities, including involvement of underserved communities, minorities, people with disabilities, and low-income communities.
• Breadth and depth of impact of their programs.
• Emphasis on youth and giving young people exposure to international partnerships and exchanges.
• Expansion or improvement of previous activities or programs.
• A commitment to reinforcing the principles of citizen diplomacy and the mission of Sister Cities International: to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time.

Best Overall awards are presented to four (4) communities according to the following population sizes:

• • Population less than 25,000
  • Population 25,001 – 100,000
  • Population 100,001 – 300,000
  • Population greater than 300,001