While it's natural for observers from afar to focus on the "big picture", it's the small things that are often most relevant to people living there. The opening of a dry-cleaning business in Mogadishu on Friday might not seem like cause for celebration - until you consider that it's the first such enterprise in the city for 20 years.
The suffering of the Somali people is well documented, and it must not be forgotten. While fighting continues in the south, there have been positive signs of political and economic recovery in the capital since the Islamist Al Shabaab militia was forced out almost a year ago. News that small businesses are starting is especially welcome.
For Mohamed Mahamoud Sheik, 24, it was simply a matter of seeing an opportunity and seizing it. "My dad, friends and people in the government were taking their clothes to be dry cleaned in Kenya," Mr Sheik told BBC News. He was working in Dubai when he had the idea, and spent his spare time learning the requisite skills before heading home. Once there, he moved quickly because retail space was being snapped up by like-minded entrepreneurs.
Dry-cleaned clothes, it turns out, might be essential for security.
