Country Director

Oxfam in Ethiopia is part of Oxfam in Africa (OIA).  OiA embraces all the Oxfam stakeholders’ entities (countries, clusters, advocacy offices and affiliates) on the continent and seeks to enable and enhance impact through collaboration and integration.

Oxfam works with local partner organizations in Ethiopia to fight inequality, and to end poverty and injustice. Active in the country since the 1970s, Oxfam is responding to emergencies to help people survive immediate short-term crises, such as drought and conflict, and also works long-term to help provide more sustainable solutions to inequality, poverty, and injustice.

The Country Director oversees a budget of around £15 million, and leads a Senior Management Team (SMT) of  6 – 7   staff who together with circa 170 staff work with partners to address urgent humanitarian needs in multiple areas, while also tackling the root causes of poverty by helping people make a decent living and adapt to and survive climate change.  The Team also works to empower youth, women and girls in all our programs and ensure women and youth can advocate for their rights and participate in making policies that affect their lives.

About the role

Oxfam is looking for a Country Director in Ethiopia to provide strategic leadership and management to this large and high-profile programme, including all development and humanitarian programming to maximise our influence and impact. The position is accountable to the Oxfam in Africa Deputy Director for the delivery, effective management (which includes budgets and planning), monitoring and evaluation, and learning from the programme.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

Strategic Leadership

• Provides vision and direction for the country programme.
• Leads on developing and implementing the country’s strategic plan, and operating model in alignment with the Africa Strategy and Horizon 2 Plan.
• Provides strategic leadership and management of Oxfam’s program in the country including all development, and humanitarian programming to maximise our influence and impact.
• Accountable to the Oxfam in Africa Deputy Director for the delivery, effective management and monitoring, evaluation and learning of the programme against the annual budget and plan.
• Accountable to the Country Governance Group (CGG) for strategic oversight, programme accountability and affiliation process where appropriate.
• Ensures overall leadership of disaster preparedness, emergency programming, mitigation and management including humanitarian response activities for Category 1 / 2 / 3 emergencies.

Programme Development and Management

• Manages the Country Leadership Team and Line manages the work in the country: staff, budget, funding, and programme.
• Ensure that programme development of coherent integrated programs consistent with the context and priorities of the country strategy and invests in the growth needs and skills of the program
• Creates and supports an environment which results in strong partnerships, government relations, knowledge sharing and innovation.
• Works with the Country Governance Group (CGG) to ensure that strategy is created and implemented seeking out and maintaining new funding sources to support program implementation.
• Works closely with other affiliates with strong interest in the country to develop and deliver high quality programmes.
• Plays an active role in drawing on learning from across Oxfam and external sources and sharing evidenced based learning with others.

Engagement and Representation

• Leads on building relationships with donor, national government departments and authorities, peer organisations and partners for visibility and influence.
• Representing Oxfam and the country programme globally within Oxfam and in global spaces where engagement on Ethiopia and Easter Africa.
• Builds influential relationships and is committed to developing networks for impactful change.
• Able to navigate through difficult circumstances within the civil society sector and maintain Oxfam’s position on its values and principles.
• Position Oxfam as a go to organisation on humanitarian, development and policy matters in Ethiopia.

Operations Oversight

• Ensures that the HR Management in the Country is in line with Oxfam Human Resource Policies and procedures including but not limited to the Code of Conduct, Safeguarding, Security and Health and Safety.
• Accountable for all donor relations and contract management in the country.
• Accesses and uses shared services appropriately and responsibly where applicable.
• Ensures compliance with the INGOs operating requirements as per the Ethiopian laws and guidelines.

Essential Experience, Knowledge and Competencies

Behavioral  Competencies (based on Oxfam’s Leadership Model)

• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Building
• Influencing
• Strategic Thinking and Judgment

Technical Skills, Experience & Knowledge

Management and Leadership

• A high degree of self-awareness and an understanding of how to drive and support excellent team performance and individual development in line with Oxfam’s values and policies.
• Proven track record of leading and motivating multi-disciplinary, geographically remote teams and operations across several locations
• Significant senior leadership and management experience in the development and delivery of programs, external relations, and humanitarian strategy, with and through partners or directly, in one or more challenging locations.
• Experience of managing complex change processes and relationships involving a wide range of both internal and external multi-cultural stakeholders across a variety of disciplines and geographical areas.
• Demonstrable understanding of both long-term development, resilience and humanitarian contexts and application of humanitarian principles.
• Proven track record of success in representing an organization with partners, government agencies, private sector organizations, media, and donors at senior level: nationally and globally.
• Proven track record of strong relationship-building with government leaders and agencies.
• Proven track record of success in influencing.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to motivate, influence and negotiate.
• Finance and Funding-. Ability to maximize fundraising from diverse institutions, both local and international. High level financial and asset management skills to steer the operational budget across several locations.
• Representation and Communication.

Strategic Analytics

• Ability to manage the development of, and contribute to, the high-level analysis of factors driving poverty, marginalization, and vulnerability in developing country contexts. The ability to ‘think politically’ understanding motivations, pressures, power dynamics and challenges faced by colleagues, partners, decision makers and other actors; and the ability to generate effective strategies to influence them.
• Proven analytical skills, with the ability to be:
  • Able to take and manage calculated risks based on evidence-based assumptions.
  • Able to think strategically, to maximise adaptability and agility
  • encourage forward thinking, new ideas and learning from experience beyond the country program context while acting within a global framework
• Good level of IT literacy and an understanding of how new developments in technology can positively contribute to the aims of an INGO

Risk

• Experience of managing security, risk, and legal compliance within an INGO context.
• Proven track record of making sound judgements in uncertain and pressurised situations.

Travel

• Ability to travel away from home, often to remote programmatic sites within the country (up to 30%).

Languages

• Proficiency in English

Person Specification

• Committed to a rights-based approach including an active commitment to putting women’s rights at the heart of all we do as well as the rights of other marginalized people in all aspects of an organization’s work.
• Most importantly, every individual at Oxfam International needs to be able to:
• Live our values of INCLUSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, EMPOWERMENT, COURAGE, SOLIDARITY and EQUALITY
• Ensure you commit to Oxfam’s Organizational Attributes (including adhering to the Code of Conduct)
• Be committed to Oxfam’s feminist principles, and to applying them in your day-to-day behaviour and your work. Be ready to keep learning, with accountability to those who experience oppression as a result of their identities, such as their gender, race/ethnicity, disability, class, or LGBTQIA identity.”
• Be committed to undertaking Oxfam’s safeguarding training and adhering to relevant policies, to ensure all people who come into Oxfam are as safe as possible.

SAFER RECRUITMENT: 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 promoting the welfare of children, young people, and adults. 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. Offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks.

APPOINTMENT TERMS

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Salary and Benefits: In line with Oxfam International’s pay range. Global mobility benefits for internationally relocated candidates only. Accompanied position.

Contract length: Fixed term, two (02) years renewable, full time 

HOW TO APPLY

Closing date: 31^st August 2024

To apply please click ‘Apply Now’ above

As part of the application process kindly submit your CV and a cover letter, preferably in MS Word. All application documents (cover letter and CV) should be submitted in English.

Should you require access to information in a different format to facilitate your application please contact us via [email protected]

Please name your submitted files with the following reference: OI_CDETH

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