Over the past two years, the Center for Gender and Peacebuilding at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) brought together a community of practice to aggregate lessons learned from conflict and post-conflict programs supporting women in Iraq and Afghanistan. The community comprises representatives of U.S. government agencies and departments, international and domestic nongovernmental organizations, members of congressional staff, U.S. military services, and representatives of allied embassies. The compilation of lessons learned set the basis for an invitational expert dialogue between Afghan and Iraqi women leaders in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2012. Together, this diverse group of leaders mapped out practical steps for women in transitional countries and offered lessons learned from years of experience. These women also expressed their concerns about the negative trends they were seeing for women in North Africa. The dialogue has set in motion a process between Afghan and Iraqi women for developing lessons learned to share with women of the Arab Spring. The following report summarizes the key challenges, lessons learned, and best practices identified at the Istanbul dialogue in June 2012.