Peacebuilding is often thought of in terms of formal meetings, negotiations, and peace agreements. However, in Baidoa, Somalia, some of the pillars of peace are being established in places not normally thought of as peacebuilding spaces such as market stalls, shops, and savings groups. Women in these spaces are working together to sustain their livelihoods.
For many women living in communities experiencing prolonged conflict and displacement, making a living is about survival. However, research among women entrepreneurs and community stakeholders in Baidoa indicates that livelihoods can be more than a means of income. Working, trading, saving, and supporting one another can create relationships that open opportunities for collaboration, trust, and social connection.
In 2022, Somalia adopted its first National Action Plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Since then, women’s peace networks have grown across the country. In Southwest State, including Baidoa, these networks facilitate women’s participation in dialogue, mediation, and efforts that strengthen social cohesion.
This agenda is relevant today. In January 2026, the UN reported that small-grant support in Baidoa was helping local women and youth entrepreneurs grow businesses, improve livelihoods, and create jobs for host and displaced communities.
However, women’s contribution to peace is not limited to formal peace meetings.
For Many Women, Making a Living Starts With Survival
Research conducted in Baidoa found that women’s entrepreneurship is largely driven by necessity, resilience, and survival. Women reported insecurity, unemployment, and economic uncertainty, in small retail businesses, food vending, tailoring, livestock trading, and agro-processing.
One participant reported, “Women work hard but most businesses are not established.” Many businesses struggle to survive due to high costs, insecurity, and limited access to finance.
But These Businesses Matter Beyond the Women Who Run Them
Income allows women to contribute to their children’s education, healthcare, and other household needs. Participants described moving from dependency to earning and becoming decision makers in their families. The shift brought increased confidence, recognition, and economic agency.
This is important for peacebuilding because household and community resilience are connected. Families able to withstand economic disruptions have better anchors for managing pressures and tensions before they escalate.
Business Relationships Can Become Avenues for Peace Across Clan and Community Boundaries
The most significant finding lies in the external factors operating beyond the household. Women described working through cooperatives, savings groups, business associations, and networks where they support one another, exchange information, and share resources. These connections can build peace by connecting women across clans and communities.
One participant said, “Women are appreciated when they make money, they collaborate in groups across clans.” This collaboration matters because communication, trust, and reciprocity are necessary for economic relationships to be established. Women who connect through savings groups or business networks begin discussing about money, markets or business challenges, but end up forming relationships that go beyond business.
Participants also described women helping to resolve disagreements in homes, marketplaces, and communities. These networks bring women from different backgrounds together to cooperate, exchange resources, and strengthen relationships.
These networks do not replace formal peace institutions. Instead, they complement them.
Peacebuilding is not only about negotiating an end to violence but building relationships that help people manage differences peacefully. From this perspective, everyday economic activities can contribute to the foundations of social cohesion.
But, Contribution is Not Always Recognition
The striking paradox in Baidoa showed that women are playing roles in household stability, community cooperation, and informal conflict resolution, but many are not well represented in formal governance and peacebuilding mechanisms.
A 2025 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, “Inclusive Peace: Voices of Somali Women Peacebuilders,” highlighted a similar challenge: Women have long contributed to conflict resolution and community stability while facing social, political, and institutional barriers to formal participation.
There are signs of change. In Southwest State, women’s peace networks have become more established, including in Baidoa. According to UNDP, these networks facilitate dialogue, promote social cohesion, and engage with formal and informal peace structures.
The challenge: Connecting the growing recognition of women as peacebuilders with the less visible peacebuilding potential and capacity of their economic networks.
Women Cannot Build Peace Alone
Recognizing women’s economic contribution is not about placing the responsibility for peace on women. The women interviewed in the study reported facing major challenges. Access to finance, collateral requirements, lack of credit histories, and dependence on male guarantors prevent women from accessing formal loans.
Moreover, insecurity increases transport costs and makes travel to bigger markets difficult, while social norms restrict mobility and decision-making. One participant explained, “Women lack access to loans from banks without a male guarantor; transportation to the big markets is costly and unsafe.”
Participants recognized the value of business training, financial literacy programs, grants, and savings groups. However, many described existing programs as disorganized or short-lived. Economic empowerment cannot therefore be reduced to short-term grants or business training.
Women need appropriate finance, market access, skills, mentorship, and long-term institutional support. Similarly, A recent UNDP analysis of Somalia highlighted the critical need to link skills development, financing, and governance reforms with meaningful employment opportunities for women and youth.
From Economic Participation to Peacebuilding Participation
The experiences of women in Baidoa show that peacebuilding thrives in everyday relationships where people work, cooperate, and rebuild. Financial and economic programs can strengthen livelihoods and markets, creating pathways for women entrepreneurs to participate in local governance and peace committees.
This should not mean turning every business into a “peacebuilding project.” Women deserve economic opportunities in their own right, without added burdens.
The challenge is for policymakers, peacebuilders, and development partners to recognize this ongoing contribution of women to community recovery, and offer and ensure long term support. Peace cannot be sustained without women’s voices. We must champion women’s leadership in daily life, within the community, and within the institutions shaping the future of peace.
Keywords: Somalia, Baidoa, Somali, Somali women, women, entrepreneurship, peacebuilding, peace, conflict, conflict resolution
Victoria Wairimu Mwangi is a development consultant and PhD Candidate in disaster management and
sustainable development, with over 15 years of experience supporting development programs across
Africa. Her work focuses on strategic and programme planning, capacity building, monitoring and
evaluation, and research and learning, aiding organizations and communities strengthen programmes for
sustainable impact.
Her expertise spans governance, gender and social inclusion, women and youth empowerment, peace and
security, social and behavior change, climate and environmental resilience, disaster risk management,
market value chains, policy development, and sustainable development. Victoria has worked with
governments, development partners, civil society organizations, and private sector, and has led
evaluations, assessments, research, and learning initiatives. ensuring that planning and evidence translate
into meaningful improvements in programmes. She brings a participatory and practical approach to her
work, recognizing that effective strategies are built with the people and institutions responsible for
implementing them.
She is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Multimedia University of Kenya and Riara University, a Board
Member of the African Social Marketing Association (AFSMA), and the iSMA representative on the
Global Alliance for Social and Behavior Change. Victoria is passionate about strengthening people,
systems, and institutions to deliver inclusive, sustainable, and lasting results.
