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Our Global Reach
29 October 2025
Our Strategies, Our Peace: ICAN’s Writers’ Workshop  

ICAN convened 20 members of WASL in Lisbon for the “Our Strategies, Our Peace” Writers’ Workshop. This unique gathering provided a secure and creative space for women peacebuilders to share their strategies, experience, expertise, and stories from conflict and crisis contexts.

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Resource Library
12 May 2025
The Odd Couple: Women Peacebuilders and Security Actors Bridging Positions, Building Trust

The WPS agenda has proven a vital entry point for women peacebuilders to engage with the security sector and build trust within affected communities. These efforts—often invisible—are contributing to the reform of the sector, reshaping local security environments and mitigating violence.

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21 April 2025
The War Against Ourselves: Afghan Women Peacebuilders’ Response to the Mental Health Crisis in Afghanistan

This case study describes the drivers of the mental health crisis in Afghanistan, its gendered and cultural dimensions, and the strategies used by Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations to provide solutions. The authors conducted interviews with representatives of Afghan women-led peacebuilding organizations and thematic experts, which were complemented by a desk review of project documentation and […]

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News & Media
24 October 2025
Operations Officer

ICAN seeks a highly qualified Operations Officer to join our team dedicated to supporting women peacebuilders worldwide in promoting gendered peace and security.

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Country - Iraq

About the Organization

Odessa is an organization based in Iraq, founded in 2009, that works to empower women economically, legally, and socially to enhance their role in peacebuilding. ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund has supported Odessa since 2018, including supporting its work to foster social cohesion among the Yazidi and Christian communities in 2018. With the creation of a peace team, the organization used documentary filmmaking and photography to profile women’s stories and their role in promoting peaceful coexistence.

In 2021, ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund funded Odessa’s work to support the deradicalization and reintegration of former ISIS-associated women, and to foster social cohesion and provide livelihood support in the process.

Core Areas of Work:

  • Peacemaking
  • PVE, deradicalization and reintegration

Stories & Features

Sisters of Peace in Iraq: Diffusing the Timebomb of a Divided Mosul

In the war-torn city of Mosul, Iraq, the scars of conflict run deep. The rise and fall of ISIS left behind a community fractured by violence. ISIS male fighters were killed, captured, or fled, but the women they married, and their children remained. Referred to as “ISIS-associated families”, they are stuck in limbo, without legal status and facing ostracism and isolation. The challenge of reintegrating these families into society is a daunting task, but the Odessa Organization for Women’s Development (Odessa) – a partner of ICAN and member of WASL- is making significant strides in bridging this divide.

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July 24, 2023
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[Women] are ambassadors of peace; they are spreading peace in their local areas and the community is recognizing them as that.

– Maysoon Ahmed Ismael Director, Odessa Organization for Women Development, Iraq

More Countries & Partners

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Women Relief Aid (WRA) South Sudan

Women Relief Aid (WRA) is a women-led, non-governmental, nonprofit, non-political, and non-religious organization based in South Sudan.

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Madaniya Sudan

Madaniya is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that was established in 2018 by a group of women activists in Sudan.

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Kareemat Center Syria

Kareemat Center is an organization that supports conflict-affected Syrian women and children who sought refuge in Turkey.

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Mobaderoon Syria

Mobaderoon is a Syrian organization that works to promote active citizenship and build trust to support and sustain peaceful coexistence.

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