For generations, the city has been a place where the continent comes together to speak, negotiate, listen, and shape its common future. The headquarters of the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa stand at its heart, surrounded by more than 130 embassies, international organisations, and institutions from across the continent and beyond, a concentration of diplomatic missions ranked among the world’s largest alongside New York and Geneva.
But Addis Ababa’s importance is not only in the institutions that call it home. It is in the people who arrive here: leaders, diplomats, researchers, entrepreneurs, and communities bringing different experiences to the same table. Every year, the city hosts more than 150 international conferences, turning meetings into opportunities for dialogue, partnership, and action.
That role is also shaping Ethiopia’s growing place in climate diplomacy. The Second Africa Climate Summit, held in Addis Ababa in September 2025, built a strong African foundation for the road to COP32, bringing leaders together around African-led climate solutions, climate finance, resilience, and a shared continental agenda. Its Addis Ababa Declaration and Call to Action gave that agenda a clear voice, one Ethiopia will carry forward as host of COP32.
For decades, Addis Ababa has given Africa a place to gather, a voice to carry, and a way to turn shared priorities into action.
