Ilwad Elman: Shaping a New Narrative for Somalia
Ilwad Elman is a social activist from Somalia. She works at the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in Mogadishu alongside her mother, the NGO's founder, Fartuun Adan. During the 2016 Africa Youth Awards, she was named African Young Personality (Female) of the Year.
Ilwad was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, between 1989 and 1990. She is one of four daughters of the late entrepreneur and peace activist Elman Ali Ahmed and social activist Fartuun Adan.
In the 1990s, her father was an outspoken peace campaigner who originated the famous Somali phrase "Drop the Gun, Pick up the Pen"; he was slain in 1996 for his human rights work and is still recognized as the Somali Father.
Ilwad was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, between 1989 and 1990. She is one of four daughters of the late entrepreneur and peace activist Elman Ali Ahmed and social activist Fartuun Adan.
In the 1990s, her father was an outspoken peace campaigner who originated the famous Somali phrase "Drop the Gun, Pick up the Pen"; he was slain in 1996 for his human rights work and is still recognized as the Somali Father of Happiness.
Ilwad returned to Somalia from Canada in 2010, when the crisis was still raging and the majority of Mogadishu and the South Central Regions of Somalia had fallen under the authority of the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab. She has remained in Somalia ever since, co-founding the first rape crisis centre for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, designing interventions aimed at security sector reform to create an inclusive space for women in peacebuilding, and developing programs for the disarmament and rehabilitation of child soldiers and adults defecting from armed groups for socioeconomic empowerment, rehabilitation, and reintegration.
At the Elman Peace Centre in Mogadishu, Ilwad works as the Director of Programs and Development. She is in charge of creating and directing the programs of the Elman Peace & Human Rights Centre, which has a diverse portfolio.
She also assists in the operation of Sister Somalia, a subsidiary of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center. It is the country's first program for assisting victims of gender-based violence, and it provides counseling, health care, and housing aid to women in need. Elman's creation has contributed to raising local awareness of the issue and encouraging changes in government policy. She has also conducted educational workshops for vulnerable segments of society, as well as created and implemented projects to promote alternative livelihood choices for both young and old people.
Mogadishu hosted its first Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TEDx) conference in mid-2012. The First Somali Bank hosted the event to exhibit potential Somali and international investors' advances in business, development, and security.[10] Ilwad was a guest speaker who discussed the importance of Sister Somalia in the country's post-conflict development.
Elman represented Somalia in 2011 against 76 other activists from 36 different African countries during the "Climb Up, Speak Out" campaign on Mount Kilimanjaro. The event was put on by UNunite Africa, was hosted by UNwomen and finished with participants pledging to stop violence against women and girls.
Elman, along with Hawa Abdi and Edna Adan Ismail, appeared in the documentary Through the Fire in 2013.She also appeared in the 2014 film Live From Mogadishu, which is about the March 2013 Mogadishu Music/Peace Festival. It was the first international music festival hosted in Somalia's capital in years, organized by the ensemble Waayaha Cusub and philanthropist Bill Brookman.
Aside from her work at Elman Peace, Ilwad is an ambassador for the Kofi Annan Foundation's latest initiative, Extremely Together, in which she and 9 other youth leaders are Preventing Violent Extremism by motivating, engaging, and empowering young people.
Ilwad is also the chair of the Mogadishu Child Protection Gender Based Violence Case Management Group, a founding member of the Advisory Committee for Researching Gender-Based Violence Social Norms in Somalia and South Sudan, a member of the international practitioners network for civilian casualty recording, an expert in the Women Waging Peace Network for Inclusive Security, and a member of the global child protection advisory group.
She has been the One Young World Ambassador to Somalia since 2013, completed President Barack Obama's flagship White House fellowship for Young African Leaders in 2014, and was chosen youth ambassador to Somalia for Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict in the same year. According to an exclusive report, Ilwad was named an expert advisor on Youth, Peace, and Security by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and has been tasked with advising research to build a strategy on UNSCR 2250.
Ilwad continues to pioneer the EPHRC's advocacy activities from the front lines of war, frequently in the face of tremendous insecurity. She has sparked national movements internally and garnered international attention externally through the combined effect of the grass-root programmatic interventions she designs as well as her global advocacy, yielding action toward long-term solutions to the human suffering and protracted crisis in Somalia.