Ibrahim Ag Idbaltanant is a recently-elected Ashoka Fellow who is working to stamp out slavery, one of the oldest scourges of humankind. Slavery still exists in many overlooked, often remote, corners of the world, embedded deep within the fabric of societies. Social entrepreneurs like Ibrahim are an essential force in the slow, daily grind of progress that will eventually eradicate this dark side of our natures. But when you are facing problems that are so deeply embedded in our cultures, success can be fleeting and often incremental. That is precisely why it must be celebrated.

Please find below the moving story of a woman named Timizwaq who, until very recently, was a slave in Northern Mali.  Thanks to the work of Ibrahim’s organization, TEMEDT, and his network of allies, she escaped from a lifetime of slavery and asked that we translate this story and share it with as many people as possible.  She is so grateful to everyone who has helped her. As she declares here, for the first time in her life, she feels loved.  At Ashoka Peace, we are delighted to join in her celebration by sharing her story.

Will Okumu is the founder of Awasi Multi Youth Group. Read all of Will's blog posts.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is working on a book about a young Afghan entrepreneur whose business supported her family and her community during the Taliban years. Read all of Gayle's blog posts.

Women were among the first beneficiaries of the international community's 2001 arrival into Afghanistan following the Taliban's retreat. Eager to support their families, many turned to entrepreneurship, often with support and training from development organizations and non-profits working in the country. Over time they launched ventures ranging from business consultancies to soccer ball and handicrafts production. Though business conditions challenged all entrepreneurs, these women worked hard to make the most of the market opportunity. Often they catered to the foreigners living in and passing through Afghanistan who wanted to support the nation's women and who could afford the steeper prices of higher-quality goods.

If you educate a boy, you educate an individual.
If you educate a girl, you educate a community.
-African Proverb

No offense to boys, but if social entrepreneurs really get it right, as I have the sneaking suspicion they will continue to do, women will one day rule the world.

A piece I worked on recently from Afghanistan highlights both the opportunities and the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in post-conflict reconstruction. The US military has, for the first time, set aside more than $350 million over five years in contracts for Afghan businesswomen to produce tees, socks and outdoor gear for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. As the American military sees it, the initiative is part counter-insurgency and part economic development.

Says Air Force Maj. Charles Seidel, who is overseeing the program: "Fifty percent of the country are women.  If we are going to make a difference, we have got to create jobs, we have to give hope. How better to do that?’’

On the opportunity side: Women are eager for the business and hungry to win the military contract.  For the past eight years Afghan women have ventured into entrepreneurship and created start-ups in fields ranging from tailoring to trucking.  Their profits have gone to educate their children and support their families, and along the way they have helped to reshape their roles among their relatives. 

Zachary Angafor, Founder of African Conflicts Response Foundation, discusses his ideas for mitigating conflict between farmers and pastoral communities in North West Cameroon, and his insights in formulating this entrepreneurial approach.

The history of violent conflict in African pastoral and farming communities is an old saga. Indeed, disputes between pastoralists and farmers over water, pasture, grazing land, as well as the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, have transformed the arid lands of the continent into theatres of war. From Sudan to Kenya on the East coast to Cameroon and Nigeria on the West coast, the conflicts are legion and often deadly. However, in this saga of recurrent conflict is a possible solution which, if well exploited, could considerably mitigate, if not, put an end to the violence. This is encouraging and opens up an opportunity to implement a people-to people approach or coexistence to peace and reconciliation in agro-pastoral communities. In other words, to create an environment where there is deep and active coexistence of community, where pastoralists and farmers live with and amongst each other, and where everyday interaction is rich and multifaceted.

PHOTO: courtesy of Boxgirls International

A recent post on Patrick Meier's must-read blog, Conflict Early Warning and Early Response, discusses the inclusion of gender in Early Warning Systems (EWS). Meier's post references a report on the issues of gender and EWS, published by Linda Öhman from the OSCE. Öhman notes that conflict analysis has traditionally excluded a women's rights or gender perspective and argues that without such a perspective, we cannot adequately predict, mitigate or prevent conflict. Why does including gender indicators in conflict analysis, such as EWS, matter?

Recently, the Peace and Security Funders Group interviewed Carla Koppell, Director of the Institute for Inclusive Security. You can read the whole interview here.

What struck me most about the interview was the Institute's desire to focus on systemic change. Ms. Koppell states firmly, "It's not enough to tack on a separate program for women; it won't change the system." Although this kind of focus won't come naturally in all situations, thinking creatively about how to bring women into the process is imperative.

It's not tokenism, either - it is substance. The Institute for Inclusive Security is betting that increasing the role played by women in peace negotiations and conflict resolution processes more generally will lead to a different way of thinking of how we resolve conflict.

This past fall, the UN Security Council passed two consecutive resolutions - Resolution 1888 (30 September 30 2009) and 1889 (5 October 2009) - which provide a challenge and opportunity for the field to enhance women’s peace leadership and greatly improve women’s protection in conflict.

Resolution 1888 calls for strengthened measures to address conflict-affected sexual violence as a peace and security issue and Resolution 1889 calls for the full participation of women in, specifically, the post-conflict period of peace making. United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro remarked that “a cessation of conflict should not result in the marginalization of women and girls, nor their relegation to stereotypical roles.” And according to Inés Alberdi, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), failing to address women’s needs in transitional governance, livelihood support, public service and judicial systems could slow recovery and undermine peace.