Lilly BeSoer

Lilly BeSoer is the founder and executive director of Voice for Change, a non-governmental organization in Jiwaka, Papua New Guinea (PNG) focused on ending violence against women and girls. In 1991, a tribal conflict uprooted BeSoer’s community, forcing her family to flee. Amid the displacement, her husband deserted the family. This experience sparked BeSoer to take action and control over her life that evolved into the pursuit of peace through activism. BeSoer has since committed to a life of participating in and leading peace negotiations to prevent, address and resolve conflict. 

In 2021, the U.N. Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index ranked PNG second to last out of 161 countries in terms of gender equality indicators related to health and empowerment. BeSoer’s community in the rural Highlands of PNG is particularly prone to violent conflict. As such, her early experiences gave her a deep appreciation for what is needed to build relationships of trust and respect. In 1996, she founded a civil society organization called Voice for Change (VfC) to bring together rural women to discuss and collectively address issues in their communities. In the years since, the organization’s mission has expanded to address all forms of violence against women and girls by promoting equal participation, building networks and empowering women activists. 

VfC’s community-based, women-led initiatives emphasize the need to bring along the whole community to effect lasting change and aim to change long-held harmful beliefs about women’s participation in society. At the local level, BeSoer has spearheaded efforts to support education about the dangers of sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV), rolling back decades of dangerous belief systems that have led to the murders of countless women and the dissolution of families in PNG. In 2023, VfC hosted the first Highlands region forum on SARV which highlighted the impact of this issue on communities. BeSoer’s work contributed to the 2013 repeal of the Sorcery Act of 1971, and the amending of the criminal code to allow for the prosecution of perpetrators of SARV. 

While SARV remains a challenging issue, and survivor-centered response mechanisms are scarcely available, VfC continues to leverage its networks to promote Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in the region. Through the SHE WINS program, which is led by the Search for Common Ground and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, VfC works with a global network of women peacebuilders to ensure SARV is discussed and addressed in the context gender-related initiatives in the Highlands provinces. 

BeSoer’s work has increased the visibility of SARV and gender-based violence as drivers of conflict and instability internationally and educated women on the rights and opportunities afforded by U.N. Security Resolution 1325, empowering them to lead on the development and implementation of WPS in their communities. 

Visaka Dharmadasa

Visaka Dharmadasa is the founder and chair of the Association of War Affected Women as well as the Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Dharmadasa has been working for sustainable peace in Sri Lanka for three decades. 

The only child of a mixed marriage — her mother was a Catholic Burgher (persons of mixed Portuguese and Sri Lankan descent) and her father a Sinhalese Buddhist — Dharmadasa began her career in social work with women affected by Sri Lanka’s 30-year-old civil war. 

In September 1998, her son Achinta, a young military officer, was reported missing in action after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked his unit of the Sri Lankan army. Dharmadasa established Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action as a mechanism for families to investigate loved ones who had been reported as missing. She quickly realized that until there was sustainable peace in the country, there would be many more mothers like her. To address this problem Visaka founded the Association of War Affected Women (AWAW), which brought women from both sides of the conflict together to work toward peace and later expanded to include important dialogues not only among women but also with men and those who were influential in the Sri Lanka government. 

In 2001, AWAW launched its signature campaign to broker a cease-fire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. On Mother’s Day 2001, Dharmadasa led a delegation of seven women into the jungle to meet with the LTTE directly. Dharmadasa was able to establish trust with the LTTE through meetings and open dialogue, and then facilitated communication between the government and LTTE when negotiations faltered. 
Dharmadasa’s consistent mediation and shuttle diplomacy paved the pathway to a cease-fire agreement between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. Later, Dharmadasa brought together civil society leaders across the conflict line to discuss core issues in a process parallel to the official peace talks and successfully lobbied the government for the release of ten LTTE soldiers and civilians. 

Dharmadasa continued to mobilize cross-community dialogues in which women from each side of the conflict could come together to express grievances and share strategies to stop the war. She also organized the Mobilizing Mothers for Peace petition project of AWAW, which resulted in nearly 100,000 signatures on a petition calling upon both the government and the LTTE to end the war. 

In 2023, Dharmadasa was able to bring Buddhist monks and the Tamil Diaspora to a facilitated dialogue, which resulted in a six-point Himalaya Declaration that has received acceptance from the highest office of the country. Dharmadasa currently trains women to run for political office and engage in power sharing and continues to educate soldiers and community leaders about international standards of conduct of war, specifically to raise awareness about the importance of soldier’s identification tags and treatment of prisoners of war. 

Dr. Mairo Mandara

Dr. Mairo Mandara is an obstetrician-gynecologist, public health physician, and the founder and chairperson of Girl Child Concerns (GCC) in Borno State, Nigeria. She has spent nearly three decades working on issues of peacebuilding, conflict and health. Mandara’s commitment to peacebuilding is driven by personal experiences in her hometown of Jos Plateau, where she witnessed the devastating impacts of extremism and violence on vulnerable populations, women and girls. 

Mandara has been a central figure in pioneering community-driven peacebuilding frameworks in Borno State, epicenter of Boko Haram’s decades-long violent presence in Nigeria. She is actively involved in supporting the reconstruction of northeastern Nigeria following the Boko Haram insurgency, ensuring that women and girls are at the center of the transition. 

Mandara has provided over 500 girls affected by the Boko Haram insurgency with quality free education through the GCC Girls Academy and other schools, with more than 200 girls receiving scholarships to study outside Borno State, including at prestigious international universities. Her Keeping Girls in School Africa Initiative (KGIS) has inspired the enrollment of 10,000 girls across Africa, fostering interfaith collaborations, particularly in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Mandara’s peacebuilding efforts have transformed the lives of thousands of individuals in conflict-affected northeast Nigeria and beyond. 

She currently serves as chief adviser and coordinator for sustainable development, partnerships and humanitarian support to the governor of Borno State. Since founding GCC in 2003, Mandara has led efforts supporting internally displaced women through funding that enabled them to rebuild their lives and has empowered over 400 adolescent girls from IDP camps in Maiduguri, offering education, life skills and livelihood training to those most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. From 2014 to 2018, she personally took on the responsibility of rescuing and mentoring over 250 girls, providing them with safe spaces and educational opportunities to rebuild their young lives. 

Outside of GCC, Mandara leads several initiatives and networks including KGIS, where she mobilizes a diverse range of stakeholders including community leaders and traditional and religious figures to address the problem of out-of-school children in the Sahel. As the governor’s chief adviser and coordinator for sustainable development, partnerships and humanitarian support, Mandara was one of the key actors in the strategic development of the governor’s Borno Model for Peace, Reconciliation and Development. The Borno Model is a non-kinetic approach aimed at handling counter-insurgency efforts and addressing humanitarian crises. It has led to the repentance and rehabilitation of over 180,000 people formerly associated with the insurgency in Borno State, marking a significant milestone in the region's peace restoration efforts. 

Her strategic leadership in developing the Borno State 25-Year Development Framework and the Strategic Transformation Plan has laid the foundation for long-term peace and growth, empowering communities and facilitating reconciliation. Her role in developing the strategy for the resettlement of over a million internally displaced people back to their ancestral homes has been pivotal in promoting stability and peace in the community.