Programme Coordinator Register

Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty.

Global Humanitarian Team Purpose

The GHT has designated responsibilities to support, coordinate and lead humanitarian policies and actions to reduce the impact of, prepare for and respond to crises, harnessing the resources of the whole Oxfam confederation to deliver support for Oxfam’s strategic plan.

The GHT works across Oxfam, in particular with Oxfam country teams, and others to maximise the quality and impact of Oxfam’s humanitarian programme by

· Delivering rapid, safe and high-quality emergency scale up capacity.

· Supporting programme strategy, operational design, humanitarian preparedness and response.

· Capacity building across Oxfam and partner organisations.

· Supporting the gathering of evidence to enable learning, innovation and advocating for change across the sector.

· Working with Campaigns and Policy to influence for greater respect of the basic rights of crisis-affected men and women.

· Working closely with affiliates in their roles as EAs, PAs, response work in media and policy for the best interests of the humanitarian programme as part of the one-Oxfam programme.

The Role

Oxfam GB is looking for candidates to be put on our Programme Coordinator Register. We are not recruiting for any specific opening at the moment, however, when there is any opening, the Register deployments vary in scope and length.

Programme Coordinators are normally accountable for the operational management of medium to large scale Oxfam emergency responses. They undertake a series of assignments for which specific Terms of Reference will be negotiated and agreed with relevant parties, prior to, and or revised in the early stages of the deployment.

Typically, Programme Coordinators are responsible for a budget of between four and twelve million Euros, a programme that assists between two hundred thousand and a million people and a matrix-managed team of between fifty to two hundred staff.

Specifically, Programme Coordinators from the Register, once deployed, may be involved in some of the following assignments, depending on the specific Terms of Reference for each deployment:

· Promote collaborative working relationships with key stakeholders in regions (Regional Humanitarian Coordinators, Country Directors, country programme staff and partners) and Global Humanitarian Team colleagues in the Delivery, Strategic Focus Areas, and Quality and Capacity teams to support the delivery of effective, high quality humanitarian programmes in line with Oxfam’s vision for humanitarian preparedness and response

· Promote integrated, gender aware humanitarian responses which demonstrate accountability to beneficiaries and are consistent with Oxfam policies and international quality standards

· Ensure that programme design and implementation is consistent with Oxfam’s quality and accountability standards, emergency guidelines and protocols, the Core Humanitarian Standard and that work meets Sphere Standards and other external quality commitments.

Management

· Oversee management and support the assessments of emergency situations, reporting with recommendations and proposals for Oxfam’s response. This will typically include coordinating multiple assessment missions across one or several countries.

· Set up new and manage ongoing medium to large-scale and complex humanitarian response programmes, into the maintenance, recovery and closing phases, ensuring project implementation conforms to proposals, beneficiary needs and as agreed with the donor.

· Selection and assessments of partner organisations

· Monitor compliance and manage and monitor programme and business functions within a country programme, often in high-risk or fragile state contexts. Ensure that all Oxfam programmes operate within the laws of the country and comply with Oxfam policies and procedures.

· Ensure sound financial management of the programme including regular and timely narrative and financial reporting against objectives and budgets, typically by setting up adequate management arrangements at country programme level.

· Manage staff according to Oxfam procedures and policies, including performance management, ensuring that staff are supported and given opportunities and training for development.

· With the Oxfam programme management line (usually Regional and Country Directors) lead the design and adjustment of programme management structures.

· Ensure the programme design integrates capacity building of staff and local partners, and that realistic hand-over arrangements are planned for early on.

· Ensure staff safety, security and evacuation (medical/security) procedures are drawn up, implemented, revised and updated. Approve security plans when necessary. Act as country-wide or regional security focal point and decision maker.

· Support, with the rest of technical staff, advisors and managers, the understanding and use of key analytical tools and frameworks related to safe programming.

Strategy Development and Learning

· Strategy development and implementation, including programme, policy, advocacy, communication, monitoring/evaluation and business support aspects. This entails the development of an emergency response strategy in the early stages of medium to large-scale responses, giving strategic guidance within the scale-up phase of emergency operations.

· Ensure that the programme meets agreed Oxfam quality standards and is developed in a consultative, participative, sensitive to culture, gender and other power dynamics and ensure that they are informed by the community to benefit from the work.

· Strategic decision making on key decisions for the programme. This can include decisions on whether to open up new response areas, on scale and scope of programmes, on prioritisation between different areas and on hand-over / phase out arrangements.

· Ensure humanitarian information, learning and knowledge are developed in responses, and ensure these are actively shared and managed with the Quality and Evidence team, other internal stakeholders and externally.

· Keep informed of relevant programme issues and initiate and contribute to wider programme learning – also by initiating and facilitating programme learning events and evaluations

· Support country-level contingency and preparedness planning

Representation

· At country level, represent Oxfam externally to government officials, UN agencies, donors and NGOs. Developing good networks and relationships for Oxfam with these agencies, often on regional level and between countries, to create formal and informal alliances towards joint objectives

· Represent Oxfam internally to country staff, modelling core competencies and behaviours of Oxfam humanitarian staff (“leading by example”), inspiring managers to help staff grow into Oxfam’s organisational culture.

· Advocate on key issues at programme level and feed into external advocacy initiatives, and proactively search out and suggest focus areas for advocacy work.

What we are looking for?

Programme Coordinators will have:

· Ability to deploy at short notice to areas affected by crisis and support the rapid scale up of humanitarian programmes to meet lifesaving needs of affected people.

· Management skills: deployments usually involve managing a team to deliver the work, will need to demonstrate management competencies, of international and multi-cultural teams, in difficult and stressful environments.

· Behavioural skills: all deployments require the individual to successfully work with and mentor others often under challenging circumstances. Demonstrate competencies around “listening and creating dialogue” and “working with others” as well as networking skills.

When undertaking Oxfam’s roles, one is expected to role model Oxfam’s feminist leadership approach and we have selected the most relevant feminist leadership practices which we will use for assessment purposes (which you can read more about here):

· Self-Awareness

· Agility, Complexity and Ambiguity

· Relationship building

· Mutual Accountability

Essential

· Significant experience of managing and coordinating large-scale emergency programmes in complex environments

· In-depth understanding of relevant humanitarian principles and policies

· Excellent teamwork skills, and a track record of building trust within and empowering large teams, also over distance

· Proven influencing, negotiating, and networking skills with internal and external audiences.

· Confident high-level representation and coordination skills.

· Analytical and strategic planning skills.

· Proven financial management skills and experienced in managing compliance in large-scale programmes.

· Ability to take initiative and make decisions with limited support in fast moving environments.

· Ability to deploy at short notice to areas affected by humanitarian crises

· Sensitivity to cultural differences, and the ability to work in a wide variety of cultural contexts.

· Ability and willingness to work under pressure and in challenging and insecure environments.

· Good communication skills

· Good written and spoken English

· At interview, shortlisted candidates will also be assessed on our values and organisational attributes, as outlined above.

Desirable

· Knowledge and experience of working in resilience, disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness programmes.

· Experience working with partnerships and community-based groups.

· Working knowledge of one or more additional languages (especially French, Spanish or Arabic).

We offer

A Programme Coordinator role may give one an opportunity to make a difference in programme coordination in humanitarian responses; to act as a key contributor to a working culture built on Oxfam’s values where we are respectful and cognizant of power imbalances internally and between Oxfam, our partners and the communities we serve and to work with a group of passionate people that are specialists in their respective fields. Oxfam offers fair pay and a competitive benefits package

Our values and commitment to safeguarding

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people, adults and beneficiaries with whom Oxfam GB engages. Oxfam expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.

The post holder will undertake the appropriate level of training and is responsible for ensuring that they understand and work within the safeguarding policies of the organisation.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. Oxfam also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By applying to be on the register, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

About us

Oxfam is a global community who believe poverty isn’t inevitable. It’s an injustice that can be overcome. We are shop volunteers, women’s right activists, marathon runners, aid workers, coffee farmers, street fundraisers, goat herders, policy experts, campaigners, water engineers and more. And we won’t stop until everyone can live life without poverty for good.

Oxfam is a member of international confederation of 21 organisations working together with partners and local communities in the areas of humanitarian, development and campaigning, in more than 90 countries.

A thriving diverse Oxfam:

It’s people power that brings about change. To play our part as a global organisation working to overcome poverty and inequality, we need equality, diversity and inclusion across our community of staff, partners and volunteers. Together, we’re committed to becoming a more diverse workforce, better able to tackle the global challenges that face our world today.

To do that:

• We need to dismantle the unequal power structures that exist everywhere, this including Oxfam and the wider development and charity sectors.
• We need an inclusive Oxfam where everyone can bring who they are to our work and feels celebrated for the differences they bring.
• We want and need everyone, and that means we need you.

In response to Covid-19 if you are offered a role where you are required to travel between countries please ensure you have been briefed by the Hiring Manager about any changes to working or precautions you should take as part of your role.