Filsan Abdi

Filsan Ahmed is a global public policy leader, peacebuilder and gender equality expert. She served as Ethiopia's Minister of Women, Children and Youth from March 2020 to her resignation in September 2021. Filsan is both the youngest person in Ethiopia to have served as a cabinet minister and the first Somali Ethiopian woman to have been appointed to the federal government. She is the founder and Managing Director of Horn Peace Institute. She received the title of Goodwill Ambassador in 2020 for her peace and reconciliation program in Ethiopia. Drawing on the momentum for peace, she started NABAD satellite television station to to promote peace and communication between Oromo and Somali communities. It is the first independently owned television station in the Somali region and the first station to be started by a woman in East Africa. Filsan's courage to speak out when reports emerged about sexual violence in the conflict in Tigray has had a global reach. She set up a task force to investigate and to shed light on conclusive evidence that women had been raped as part of the conflict. She resigned as minister as an act of moral leadership and seeks to inspire a generation of young African leaders to advance peace and good governance that ensures dignity for all."