JOB PURPOSE: To lead the country relations team which offers the main interface between OGB’s support, broker and enabling offer to Oxfam countries and regions. Country Relations Brokers are a strategic resource for channelling OGB’s collective capabilities (I.e. programming; influencing; knowledge; funding; grant and risk management etc) in support of countries as well as being a critical bridge providing an indepth understanding for OGB, of the overarching needs, priorities and challenges faced by countries. The CR team will play a critical part in helping the organisation to engage in its partnerships with country offices in decolonial and racially just ways, and to complement the work of the regional teams in Oxfam
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE
• Leads on developing and enabling strategic partnerships with Oxfam Country Offices and Southern Affiliates in line with the decolonial partnerships strategy
• Helps shape objectives for the Country Relations Team in line with OGBs strategic framework, the Impact Division and Partnership Team strategic plans
• Provides leadership of the Country Relations Team including setting and leading the delivery of team objectives.
• Produces, assimilates, analyses and uses information and feedback from country offices to provide in-depth analysis io shape OGB’s decolonial partnerships approaches
• Maintains strategic oversight over a broad spectrum of relationships with country teams in OGB’s Strategic Partnership Countries, requiring a variety of competences and skills of the job holder. Management tasks and problems are diverse and complex and involve a significant degree of risk (financial, security, brand).
• Decision-making is strategic and operational with a high degree of judgement based on specific problem solving experience, drawing on a range of external and internal factors.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Coordination and Leadership of the support that Oxfam GB, as an affiliate, contributes to the confederation – particularly to countries and regions. Working closely with technical and thematic teams to ensure that country contexts and priorities shape OGB’s decision making and allocation of resources.
• Support to OGB senior leadership’s shaping of its overall strategic offer to countries in the context of profound organisational transformation
• Oversight and management of OGBs Unrestricted Funding contributions to and learnings from strategic partnership countries
• Lead the Country Relations Team to ensure a deep understanding of the context and work that Oxfam teams and partners are doing in Strategic Partnership Countries, in order to ensure meaningful and appropriate support and collaboration that is tailored to each country while also maintaining an overall strategic direction. Work closely with humanitarian colleagues to ensure a cohesive approach.
• Foster and enable strong, constructive working relationships with International Operations, Impact Operations, and Integrity and Ethics to influence and enable decolonial risk and compliance systems and practice in the EA function.
• Leadership role in a proposed OGB Countries Forum
• Establish strong working relations with senior Oxfam International leaders at regional and global level and with affiliates.
• Manage the portfolio with Southern Affiliates, shaping a more decolonial way of working.
• To nurture and grow a values-led and diverse team, ensuring that every team members plays a role in delivering Oxfam’s strategy, vision and cultural aspirations. This includes developing individual and team capabilities through pro-active performance management and supporting OGB to attract, motivate and grow our staff.
Experience, Knowledge & Competencies
Essential
For this role, you will be 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
• Mutual accountability
• Relationship building
In addition:
• Experience of working at senior leadership level in country or regional level with international organisations, in regions supported by the Country Relations Team (Asia, MENA, Africa)
• Experience of working in complex contexts, including extended conflict contexts, and navigating challenging spaces and identifying risks that arise from these contexts
• Proven strong team leadership and management skills of a geographically dispersed and high performing team
• Experience managing performance of others and helping people to develop, grow and achieve their potential, including increasing diversity and inclusion in teams and / or workplaces
• Strong team building skills and the proven ability to build relationships within a team and with other teams in a collaborative way in line with feminist principles.
• Proven ability in significant budget oversight and management
• Strong negotiation and positive, inclusive problem-solving experience.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills with internal and external audiences.
• Outstanding collaboration skills, effective networking skills and ability to assemble the right people into networks
• Good understanding. commitment and experience in embedding and continuously learning to embed a decolonial, anti-racist, safe, intersectional feminist and partner led approach in your work.
• Proven sound judgement in complex internal organisational situations and external context situations, and ability to make quick and sound decisions
At interview, shortlisted candidates will also be assessed on our values and organisational attributes, as outlined above.
Desirable
• Experience of working in both programming and influencing roles
• Experience of working in a large complex international organisation
• Lived experiences with intersecting systems of oppression, with knowledge and experience of how power and privilege play out in the countries we work with, including the UK.
Deadline: 23 September 2022
