Aaliyah Ibrahim

Aaliyah O. Ibrahim is an international development practitioner working at the intersections of resilience, fragility, and gender-transformative outcomes. She has advised multilateral institutions, such as the Islamic Development Bank and the African Development Bank, on strengthening resilience in transitional contexts.

Summer internship

This summer, I worked with Halcyon in Washington, D.C., and Kidame Mart in Ethiopia. At Halcyon, I supported the development of an investor engagement playbook and contributed to designing the investment readiness curriculum, both aimed at helping social entrepreneurs access catalytic capital. At Kidame Mart, I contributed to business development research and grant writing for their social enterprise practice, exploring ways to expand last-mile distribution networks for women entrepreneurs. These roles pushed me to think critically about development through the lens of entrepreneurship and to consider what peace-positive investments might look like in practice, especially for conflict-affected and low-income societies. Together, these summer experiences deepened my technical and operational skills while clarifying how strategic investment can amplify the resilience and equity outcomes that have defined my professional path.

Aaliyah has also worked with the African Women’s Development Fund on multiple fronts to highlight and communicate strategies for amplifying African women’s well-being and political resilience within their unique context. She currently leads the Victim Advocacy Unit of the Stand To End Rape Initiative (S.T.E.R.) in Nigeria on a volunteer basis, where she coordinates support services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. She is strongly interested in securing gender-transformative human development through her professional activities.

Aaliyah holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering and a certificate from the Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights (M.A.P.H.R.) at Yale University.