Re‐centring African diplomacy at the municipal scale
The past decade has witnessed a steady diffusion of diplomatic agency from national foreign ministries to metropolitan executives. This infranational turn is most visible in Africa’s large economic hubs, where mayors deploy formal summits, trade missions and strategic branding to secure resources that central governments alone cannot swiftly deliver. The trend was crystallised in Pretoria this year when the Urban 20 (U20) launched its 2025 cycle under the co-chairpersonship of Tshwane and Johannesburg, positioning African municipalities at the heart of G20 preparatory processes.
Investment attraction as urban foreign policy
Attracting capital has become an explicit diplomatic objective. Lagos State reports more than US $13 trillion in partnership commitments since 2019, spanning logistics, healthcare and digital connectivity, after a deliberate pivot towards global investor outreach embedded in its “Smart-City” narrative. The scale of these pledges underscores the competitive ethos driving inter-city diplomacy: each administration seeks to convert symbolic visibility into bankable projects, often bypassing protracted national negotiations.
Digital infrastructure and the recalibration of soft power
Securing a US $22 million foreign direct investment for an expanded fibre-optic backbone on 20 May 2025, Lagos again demonstrated how city administrations frame connectivity as both socio-economic lever and reputational asset. Officials explicitly linked the deal to broader objectives of inclusive entrepreneurship and tech-hub consolidation, signalling an emergent soft-power vocabulary that blends digital transformation with developmental legitimacy.
Summits, networks and norm entrepreneurship
While bilateral deals dominate headlines, multilateral convenings remain critical for agenda-setting. The forthcoming Future Hospitality Summit Africa in Cape Town will assemble investors controlling some US $4 billion in hotel assets, turning the city into a diplomatic marketplace where urban environmental, social and governance narratives are traded for concrete equity flows. Such platforms also allow African municipalities to codify common positions—on climate adaptation finance or responsible tourism—that subsequently filter into continental and global negotiations.
Negotiating the national interface
Urban diplomacy rarely proceeds unchecked by state actors. The South African Deputy President’s Paris round-table with French corporates on 20 May 2025 illustrated a hybrid model in which national representatives amplify city-led infrastructure proposals to international audiences, thereby retaining constitutional oversight while exploiting municipal agility. Elsewhere, governors and mayors cultivate direct ties with bilateral donors, yet remain dependent on central fiscal guarantees, creating a dynamic of mutual interdependence rather than outright decentralisation.
Governance implications and future trajectories
The institutionalisation of city diplomacy in Africa is reshaping conventional hierarchies of international relations. Urban authorities now craft memoranda of understanding, issue green bonds and host sector-specific expos that rival national forums in attendance and outcomes. Nevertheless, disparities in administrative capacity risk widening the gap between well-resourced metros and secondary cities. Ensuring that decentralised cooperation complements—rather than fragments—continental integration agendas will require clearer regulatory frameworks, enhanced metropolitan accountability and sustained knowledge exchange across linguistic and political divides.
City diplomacy in Africa has matured from symbolic city-twinnings to a strategically curated portfolio of investment promotion, networked advocacy and policy experimentation. By leveraging their demographic weight and economic centrality, municipalities are re-negotiating Africa’s position in global value chains and multilateral arenas. The task for diplomats and policymakers is to harness this momentum while safeguarding coherence between local ambition and national interest, thereby converting municipal soft power into inclusive continental development.
