IIDA Women's Development Organisation

Updated on Dec 30, 2023

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Founded 25 May 1991 Type Non-profit NGO		Founder Halima Abdi Arush Headquarters Mogadishu, Somalia
Motto "Qoriga Dhig, Qalinka Qaad" "Drop the gun and take the pen" Services education, health, economy

IIDA Women's Development Organisation is a non-governmental organisation based in Mogadishu, Somalia. Its work is centered on peacebuilding, active citizenship for women, and other initiatives in the local education, health and economy sectors.

Establishment

The IIDA Women's Development Organisation NGO was founded in Mogadishu on 25 May 1991 by a group of Somali women activists led by Halima Abdi Arush. Arush was a former education inspector whose husband had been killed during the civil war in Somalia. The organisation's aim was to create an interface organization enabling action in favour of peacebuilding, humanitarianism and women's rights. The word iida in the Somali language means "woman born on a feast day". It was chosen by the late Amina Abdullahi Haji Fiqow, a Somali human rights activist.

Mission

The IIDA Women's Development Organisation's main objectives are to support the societal reconstruction process and champion women's rights in Somalia.

Its main development aims are:

To promote peace and peaceful conflict resolution;

To promote respect for human rights and differences in social strata;

To encourage and assist the involvement of Somali women in the processes of reconciliation, reconstruction and economic development;

To provide training for women and to encourage micro credit activities, in order to allow them to reach their economic independence;

TO discourage the practice of female genital mutilation and gender-based violence;

To promote the growth and development of women's associations, including trade-unions;

Offices

IIDA is currently maintains three branches in Somalia (Mogadishu, Merca, Dhusamareb). It also has an office one in Nairobi, Kenya (since December 2007), and one in Turin, Italy.

Main projects

IIDA's main projects encompass peacebuilding, active citizenship for women, and other initiatives in the education, health and economy sectors.

Projects have included:

Reestablishing and operating in collaboration with the Italian NGO CISP the maternity hospital of Forlanini Hospital in Mogadishu, and providing trained to medical personnel.

Disarmament of 150 irregular youth soldiers in the Merca area.

Women's empowerment projects implemented via the Somali Women Agenda. The platform brings together 16 women's associations and other individual members from all regions of Somalia, and draws a real program priorities, strategies and actions for the peace process and societal reconstruction. These last two initiatives were implemented in collaboration with the Italian NGO COSPE.

Since June 2008, IIDA Italia has published Tahrib, an online newsletter aimed at raising awareness on the sociopolitical situation in Somalia. Contributors to the newsletter include Somalian MP Maryan Shekh Osman, President of the Italian section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Giovanna Pagani, and journalist Kenneth Oduor.

Awards

IIDA has received various international awards for its peacebuilding, human rights and development work:

UNIFEM Global Award 1996, awarded by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then Secretary General of the United Nations, in New York City on 26 October 1996 at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of UNIFEM;

Prize for Human Rights of the French Republic, awarded in Paris on 10 décembre 2008 on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Memberships

IIDA is a member of the following networks:

Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI)

Fédération des Femmes Africaines pour la Paix (FERFAP)

Network of Women from the Mediterranean, the East and the South of Europe (Network Women)

References

IIDA Women's Development Organisation Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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