MBBI Peacebuilder of the Year 2025: Somia Sadiq
Somia Sadiq is a space-maker for more women of colour to assume leadership roles, and a tenacious boundary-pusher advancing peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts across the globe. She believes stories have the power to advance diplomacy, break barriers, and promote healing. With ancestral roots in post-colonial Punjab and Kashmir, Somia Sadiq holds experience in environmental sciences, natural resources management, negotiations, counterterrorism and countering/preventing violent extremism.
Somia is the founder of Narratives Inc., and also founded Kahanee, a non-profit dedicated to amplifying stories and promoting peacebuilding.
She is committed to decolonizing ways of thinking, knowing, and being. She amplifies multiple knowledge systems and tools to resolve conflicts creatively with a trauma-informed approach for communities and practitioners, pushing the boundaries of research and analytics. Somia has facilitated the creation of an all-encompassing impact assessment model that harmoniously brings together multiple knowledge systems. Additionally, she developed the Identity-based conflict transformation model to support peacebuilding, healing, and transformation efforts between groups.
Somia is regularly invited to advise governments, nations, communities and organizations on ways to broker agreements, advise on processes to have bold, meaningful, transformative conversations. Her keynote addresses touch on topics such as belonging and language justice, courageous leadership, moving from performative to structural change, and story-based transformation.
With a vision to inspire, amplify, and uplift young leaders, particularly those from traditionally marginalized and minority populations, Somia aims to foster workplaces and societies that embody principles of humility, respect, and reciprocity.
She has over two decades of experience in impact assessment, and environmental planning, Somia has worked with governments, communities, and organizations globally to bridge divides and foster meaningful, systemic transformation. A highly sought-after keynote speaker, she blends business acumen with cultural wisdom, storytelling, and humor to inspire action in leadership, policy, and peacebuilding spaces. Recognized for her groundbreaking contributions, she was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Canadian Institute of Planners, the highest honor for a professional planner in Canada. She is also an Environmental Professional with Eco Canada, an Associate with the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, and a member of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs in The Hague. She has been featured on major podcasts and media platforms, sharing insights on identity-based conflict resolution, trauma-informed leadership, and the power of narratives in shaping societies. Most recently, she published Gajarah in September of 2025.