Ilwad Elman

Ilwad Elman is a Somali-Canadian social activist who works at the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre in Mogadishu alongside her mother Fartuun Adan, the organisation's founder. ¹ She was voted African Young Personality (Female) of the Year at the 2016 Africa Youth Awards, and she and her mother received the Right Livelihood Award in 2022 for promoting peace, demilitarisation and human rights in Somalia. ^{1 2} No source used here names a religion or school for her, so her data record leaves her faith as unknown. ^{1 2}

She was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, one of four daughters of the entrepreneur and peace activist Elman Ali Ahmed and the social activist Fartuun Adan. ¹ The Right Livelihood Award's laureate page gives her birth date as 22 December 1989; the English article gives her birth less precisely, as 1988 or 1989 and between 1989 and 1990, and the variant is recorded in her data record. ^{2 1} Her father coined the mantra "Drop the Gun, Pick up the Pen" and was assassinated in 1996 for his human rights work; he is remembered as the Somali Father of Peace. ¹ The family settled in Canada, and Ilwad grew up there. ¹

Ilwad returned from Canada to Somalia in 2010, while much of Mogadishu and the south-central regions were held by al-Shabaab, and she has remained in Somalia since. ¹ With her mother she co-founded the first rape crisis centre for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, designed interventions for security-sector reform and women's place in peacebuilding, and developed programmes for the disarmament and rehabilitation of child soldiers and of adults defecting from armed groups. ¹ On 20 November 2019 her sister Almaas Elman, who had also returned to Somalia as an aid worker, was shot and killed in a car near Mogadishu airport. ¹

In honour of her father, the family established the Elman Peace Centre in Mogadishu; her mother serves as its executive director and Ilwad as Director of Programs and Development, overseeing human rights, gender justice, protection of civilians, peace and security and social entrepreneurship. ¹ She also helps run Sister Somalia, the country's first programme assisting victims of gender-based violence, which provides counselling, health and housing support. ¹ The Right Livelihood Foundation describes the centre's community-based model — psychosocial support, rehabilitation, education, skills training and job creation for former combatants and at-risk youth — and its sharing with other African conflicts through the Peace by Africa network of more than 60 peacebuilding organisations. ²

She briefed the UN Security Council on the protection of civilians in 2015, the first time a civil-society representative was invited to speak on the issue in that debate, and in August 2016 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed her an expert advisor on youth, peace and security. ¹ She is an advocate for the Kofi Annan Foundation's Extremely Together initiative of young leaders working to prevent violent extremism. ¹ Her honours include the 2015 Gleitsman International Activist Award, shared with her mother, the 2017 BET Global Good Star Award, and a place on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2020. ¹

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