Humanitarian Policy & Advocacy Lead at Oxfam

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (Technical, Leadership, People and Resource management)

• Leading and overseeing policy development, research and advocacy on key thematic areas related to humanitarian issues and the challenges facing communities in fragile and conflict affected contexts, on behalf of the confederation, working with countries, regions and affiliates atall levels to ensure consistency, quality, and effectiveness of this strand of work to achieve
• maximum impact.
• Managing on-going development of Oxfam’s humanitarian policy platforms, including forecasting and leading strategic dialogue on emerging and/or evolving analysis and debates related to priority campaign content.
• Managing research, intelligence gathering, and policy coordination and delivery for Oxfam’s priority campaigns at key external political moments; as well as developing our understanding and knowledge on key humanitarian and systemic issues and embedding this into all advocacy, policy, research and influencing work.
• Responsible for maintaining thematic expertise on conflict, humanitarian system and nexus issues but works flexibly to embed inequality, gender, rights and justice framing across all humanitarian policy, research and advocacy.
• Joining prioritised project teams as necessary and as the theories of change for the project dictate.
• Providing policy support, advocacy access, training and capacity building for country colleagues, allies and partners.
• Representing Oxfam externally with senior policy makers and linking the confederation with existing networks of expertise within and beyond the organisation, in partnership with OI Advocacy Offices, country and regional teams as appropriate.
• Working with the deputy ACE director/Head of advocacy & campaigns, ACE director and humanitarian director to manage risk, and ensure that the safety and security Oxfam and partners’ in fragile and conflict-affected contexts is not compromised by policy/advocacy/campaigns work
• Providing briefing materials for OI Executive Director and other colleagues who are representing the organisation externally.
• Ensuring that Oxfam’s policy and advocacy work is embedded in the experience of country program, allies and partner work reflective the lived experience of people living in poverty, and ensuring that knowledge is developed and presented in an inclusive, decolonised, and feminist way.
• Dealing with problems that are highly diverse and complex requiring comprehensive analysis of programme information from a wide variety of sources.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Most importantly, every individual at Oxfam International Secretariat needs to be able to:

• Live our values of INCLUSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, EMPOWERMENT, COURAGE, SOLIDARITY and EQUALITY (read more about these here)
• Ensure you commit to our ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES (including adhering to the Code of Conduct):
• Be committed to our 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.

EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & COMPETENCIES

ESSENTIAL

• Self-Awareness
• Systems Thinking
• Strategic Thinking and Judgment
• Mutual accountability
• Enabling

In addition:

• Experience enabling performance of others and helping people to develop, grow and achieve their potential, including increasing diversity and inclusion in teams and / or workplaces
• Proven skills in developing, and leading successful political advocacy strategies focussed on influencing international policy and practice.
• An understanding of policy development and experience at overseeing the integration of policy insights and solutions into campaigns and advocacy, including sound political judgement and risk management, based on experience of dealing with a wide range of political actors
• Very strong conceptual and analytical skills.
• Experience of working as an organisational spokesperson.
• Ability and willingness to continually learn, unlearn and relearn new practices, and apply that learning in new and changing contexts.
• Excellent understanding of, commitment to and experience of embedding and continuously learning to embed a decolonial, anti-racist, intersectional feminist and partner led approach in your work
• Ability to manage large amounts of work, outstanding prioritisation and time management skills.
• Sound knowledge of the thematic subject area of the role.

Desirable

• Lived experiences with intersecting systems of oppression, with knowledge and experience of how power and privilege play out in the countries we work with.