ILO COOP/SSE Staff

Simel Esim

Simel Esim, a Turkish-American economist, has led the ILO’s portfolio on cooperative, social and solidarity economy (COOP/SSE) since 2012, when she became the first woman to be appointed as the head the ILO’s Cooperatives Unit (COOP) since 1920. In 2022, she served as lead technical expert for the ILO’s Office report on decent work and the SSE. The general discussion at the 110th ILC led to the adoption of a resolution on decent work and the SSE , and the subsequent seven year strategy and action plan (2023-2029) endorsed by the ILO’s Governing Body.

Previously, Simel led ILO Regional Office for Arab States’ portfolio on gender equality and women workers rights. Prior to joining the ILO in 2004, Ms Esim worked for the World Bank, Development Alternatives, Inc. and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). She has been a member of Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) since its founding in 1997 and currently serves on its Board.

She holds a PhD in Economics from the American University in Washington, DC, an MA in International Economics and Middle East Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy and Washington, DC, and a BA in Political Science from the Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. She is fluent in English and Turkish and has working knowledge of Arabic, French and Italian.

Guy Tchami

Guy Tchami has been working for the ILO for the past sixteen years. He joined the organization in 2001 in its Cooperative, social and solidarity economy (COOP/SSE) unit in Geneva, mainly working on project formulation, project backstopping, research and publications, etc. Between 2008-11, he worked for a DFID-funded programme assisting cooperatives and other self-help groups in Eastern and Southern Africa, based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is currently based in Geneva as Cooperative Policy and Research Specialist working on development cooperation projects on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. He holds a Master’s degree in Development Economics. He speaks French, and English, and as well as has working knowledge of Spanish.

Waltteri Katajamäki

Waltteri Katajamäki joined the COOP/SSE unit in April 2025 as a Social and Solidarity Economy Specialist. He has been with the ILO since 2013, spending the last seven years working on forestry and the rural economy in the Sectoral Policies Department. Prior to that, Waltteri worked with the COOP/SSE unit and the ILO Country Office in Zambia. Before joining the ILO, he gained extensive experience in international development, working for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and several organizations in Europe and Latin America. Throughout his career, Waltteri's work has focussed on the social and solidarity economy and rural development, particularly in Latin America. These areas will remain among his key responsibilities within his work in COOP/SSE.

Rayann Koudaih

Rayann Koudaih joined the ILO in 2015. Before joining the COOP/SSE unit, he has worked at the ILO Regional Office for Arab States as an enterprise development officer. His technical areas of work include entrepreneurship promotion, SME productivity and working conditions, financial inclusion, enterprise formalization, and more recently SSE and cooperative development in Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Palestine, and Iraq. Prior to joining the ILO, Rayann worked as a policy analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on private sector development policies in the MENA region. He joined ILO’s Cooperatives Unit in Geneva as Technical Officer on SSE and Cooperative Development providing support to relevant development cooperation projects in Arab States and Africa. He holds a Master’s degree in International and Development Economics from the Université de Paris-Dauphine in Paris, France. He speaks Arabic, French, and English.

Nawon Lee

Nawon Lee has joined the Cooperative, Social, and Solidarity Unit of the Enterprises Department at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva in April 2024. He is seconded to the ILO as a Technical Specialist in SSE Statistics after sixteen-years at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) of South Korea.

Nawon has an extensive background and practical expertise in the formulation, coordination, and execution of policies. He had over a decade of experience in policy-related departments, including the Economic Policy Bureau, the Tax Office, the International Finance Bureau, and the Economic Structure Reform Bureau. Additionally, he devoted more than three years to advising vice ministers and deputy prime ministers on policy matters.

Nawon graduated from Seoul National University (SNU) with a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Economics and from London School of Economics and Political Science with a Master of Public Administration. He hopes that his work at the ILO will enable him to provide policy advice and technical assistance to develop statistics of cooperatives and the social and solidarity economy. He also hopes to contribute to raising awareness on cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy, on the regional and international levels.

Mansour Omeira

Mansour Omeira is a Social Innovation Specialist at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. His expertise spans gender and development, labour and demographic economics, and marketing and consumer research. He focuses on the informal economy, the social and solidarity economy, and facilitating just digital and environmental transitions. He holds a PhD in Management from the University of Neuchâtel and a BA and MA in Economics from the American University of Beirut. At the ILO, Mansour has held various roles, including Equality and Non-Discrimination Specialist, Research and Knowledge Management Officer, and Labour Economist. He is fluent in English, French, and Arabic, with basic proficiency in Spanish.

Hyung Sik Eum

Hyung Sik Eum joined the ILO’s COOP/SSE unit in May 2025 as a Technical Officer under the project “Strengthening the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Knowledge Base”. His areas of expertise include the development of statistics on cooperatives and the SSE, as well as research on work and employment within cooperatives and SSE entities, the institutionalization of the SSE, and emerging organizational forms.

Prior to joining the ILO, he worked as a Data Analyst at CICOPA, the international organization representing worker, social, and artisans’ cooperatives. He later served as Director of Research at the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).

Hyung Sik is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Liège in Belgium. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Language from Hankook University of Foreign Studies and a Master’s degree in Sociology from Hallym University in the Republic of Korea.

He is the author and co-author of several key publications on cooperatives and employment, including: Cooperatives and Employment: A Global Report (CICOPA, 1st edition in 2014 and 2nd edition in 2017), Cooperatives in Industrial and Service Sectors in the Asia-Pacific Region: Models, Work and Employment, Ecosystem and Public Policies (ICA AP & CICOPA, 2019). He is also co-editor of Cooperatives and the World of Work (Routledge, 2019).

Susan Bvumbe

Susan Bvumbe is the Administrative Secretary of the Cooperative, social and solidarity economy (COOP/SSE) unit. Prior to joining the ILO in 2010, she worked for the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe for 8 years in the area of administration. She manages all administrative work and the website of the Unit. She speaks English, French and Shona.