An Institutional Analysis of Surabaya (Indonesia)-Kitakyushu (Japan) Green Sister City Cooperation

Sister city cooperation has been exercised since 1960 in Indonesia, yet the program’s impact on city development is not significant. This paper highlights impactful outcomes produced by a proper governance in sister city cooperation. This research utilized a case study of a green sister city cooperation between Surabaya (Indonesia) and Kitakyushu (Japan), by analyzing interviews and official documents. The green sister city collaboration is considered successful because one of its projects, the organic waste management project, is able to help the Surabaya city government to reduce the number of organic waste by half. Utilizing a governance networks framework, our findings identify key actors in this program: Surabaya city Government, Kitakyushu city Government, Japan's Private Sector (Nishihara Co.), and Surabaya’s NGO (Nol Sampah Surabaya). The green sister city cooperation has an “imperfect” self-governed network structure, which encourages compact actors’ involvement but in accordance with the capital required for the program. In contrast to the “perfect” self-governed network, this sister city collaboration model shows the dynamic of social interactions and distribution of authority among actors.