In a country buffeted by decades of conflict, where hope often struggles to hold its ground, Ilwad Elman stands as a testament to what vision, courage, and convictions can achieve.
Somali-Canadian activist, peacebuilder, and human rights defender, she has made it her life’s work to rebuild her homeland from the inside out, and to bring dignity, opportunity, and healing to those too often left behind.
Born in Mogadishu around 1989-1990, Ilwad is one of four daughters of two iconic peace activists, her father, Elman Ali Ahmed, known as the “Somali Father of Peace”, who famously championed the slogan “Drop the Gun, Pick up the Pen,” and her mother, Fartuun Adan, who continued their family’s humanitarian legacy.
Tragically, her father was assassinated in 1996 for his human rights work, a loss that profoundly shaped Ilwad’s path and commitment to Somalia’s future.
When civil war shattered their country, Ilwad and her family fled to Canada for safety.
But the weight of her father’s legacy and the persistent suffering of her people drew her back.
In 2010, she left the comforts of exile and returned to Mogadishu, not as a visitor, but as a changemaker.
From that moment forward, Ilwad’s journey has intertwined global advocacy with grassroots impact.
Alongside her mother, she helped shape the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre, an organization that has grown into one of Somalia’s most respected platforms for peacebuilding, gender justice, and survivor-centered care.
Among her pioneering initiatives, Ilwad co-founded Sister Somalia, the country’s first rape crisis centre.
In a context where reporting sexual violence was once taboo—or worse punished, these safe spaces provided medical care, trauma counseling, emergency housing, legal aid and business startup grants to women and girls whose lives had been torn apart by violence and displacement.
On the peacebuilding front, Ilwad has designed and overseen community-based disarmament and rehabilitation programmes for child soldiers and adults defecting from armed groups.
Her approach prioritizes local ownership, psychosocial healing, vocational training, and reintegration, reviving the original spirit of “Drop the Gun, Pick up the Pen” as more than a slogan, but a practical path to changing lives.
Ilwad’s voice also reaches far beyond Somalia’s borders.
In 2015 she briefed the UN Security Council on Protection of Civilians, the first-ever civil society representative invited, and the first time that the annual thematic debate emphasized women’s participation.
She helped draft the Youth Action Agenda on Countering Violent Extremism, which informed the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace & Security.
In 2016, she was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as an expert advisor on implementing that resolution, and later by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to serve on the board of the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the youngest ever in that role.
Her work has earned her global recognition and a cascade of awards, the Gleitsman International Activist Award from Harvard, the Right the Wrongs Award from Oxfam America, numerous “Most Influential Young African” listings, and the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, sometimes dubbed the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
But Ilwad Elman is more than the sum of accolades.
She is a living bridge between trauma and trust, between silenced survivors and empowered citizens, between fractured post-conflict societies and communities determined to heal.
Her story reminds us that peace is not a lofty abstraction, but a daily act of rebuilding, of offering safe spaces, livelihood opportunities, healing practices, and the possibility of agency to people who thought all agency had been stripped away.
In the face of unimaginable odds, Ilwad chose to return, to stay, and to build.
Her legacy will not be measured by speeches or awards alone, but by the lives that Sister Somalia shelters, by the young men who lay down their arms and learn a trade, and by a Somalia that slowly, persistently, remembers its humanity one program, one healed survivor, and one reintegrated citizen at a time.
In a world where peace is too often treated as a static goal, Ilwad Elman reminds us that peace is alive, restless, and regenerative, and that it grows, sometimes imperceptibly, from the courage of a single person who refuses to look away.
