A group of African researchers and disability activists met for three days in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to talk about ‘advocacy-driven research’ and ‘research-informed advocacy’, focussing on autism and other developmental disabilities. Researchers and advocates had the unique opportunity to discuss, brainstorm, and identify the most prominent autism research and advocacy priorities to address on the African continent. The group also provided specific insights from Africa for the World Health Organization/Unicef Global Report on developmental disabilities, disorder and delays, which will be published later this year. Importantly, the discussants are all from African countries and deeply involved with either autism research or disability activism in their respective countries. There were representatives from South Africa, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ghana. Prof Petrus de Vries and Dr Liezl Schlebusch from CARA and Dr Tumelo Leeuw, Chairperson of Autism South Africa were the South African representatives. The Regional Advocacy Leadership Network Meeting was organised, supported and facilitated by Autism Speaks (Dr Andy Shih and Dr Pamela Dixon) and the IKE Foundation in Nigeria (Mr Nwanze Okedegbe).