Aatif Somji is a Senior Research Officer in the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion team at ODI. His research interests and experiences are focused on the care economy, women’s economic empowerment and inclusive value chain development.

Prior to joining ODI, Aatif worked as an independent research consultant supporting organisations including the ILO, UN Women and the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development on how to incorporate unpaid care work into their programming, with a particular focus on childcare. Prior to this, he was a Technical Officer at the ILO, focusing on improving decent work outcomes for micro, small and medium enterprises; and a Senior Associate Consultant at PwC, working in the International Development team.

Aatif holds a BSc in Economics and Politics from the University of Warwick and an MA in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute, Geneva. His Master’s thesis used a mixed methods approach to establish the extent to which unpaid care work is a barrier to women’s microenterprise development. Aatif speaks English and French, and has in-country experience in Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.