Country Director Western Sahara/ALGERIA

Your Profile

• You are an exceptional leader committed to Oxfam values and to the success of the Oxfam programme.
• Your outstanding analytical skills enable you to constantly adapt to an ever-changing context and to think beyond the country programme context and to act within a regional and global framework.
• You have significant senior leadership and management experience in the development and delivery of high quality programme, humanitarian and influencing strategy, with and through partners or directly, in one or more challenging locations.
• You have a track record of leading and motivating multi-disciplinary, geographically remote teams and operations across a number of locations.
• You have experience of managing security, risk and legal compliance within an INGO context and a demonstrable understanding of humanitarian contexts and application of humanitarian principles. The ability to ‘think politically’ understanding motivations, pressures, power dynamics and challenges faced by colleagues, partners, decision makers and other actors.
• You have a proven track record of success in representing an organisation with partners, government agencies, private sector organisations, media and donors at senior level; nationally and globally, a proven track record of success in negotiating humanitarian access, advocacy and influencing with ability to maximise fundraising from diverse institutions, both local and international. You are committed to promote gender equity and the interests of marginalised people in all aspects of your work.
• You have a good level of IT literacy and understanding of how new developments in technology can positively contribute to the aims of an INGO.
• You are able to successfully communicate in French and English and have a good knowledge of Spanish. Ideally you have the ability to work in Arabic.

 

Oxfam, one of the leading global development organizations, mobilizes the power of people against poverty. We are a diverse confederation of 19 strongly interconnected national affiliates working in over 90 countries, either directly, or with partners to enable transformational change, using a unique combination of long-term development, campaigning and humanitarian programs.

Context

In Western Sahara / Algeria the threats to people living in poverty and to human rights are many, varied, and complex.

The Western Sahara is officially considered a non-self-governing territory in the process of decolonization. It stretches across an area of 266 000 km² between the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco and Mauritania. It is divided in two by the ‘Border Wall’, a sand wall almost 2 700 km long that was built by the Moroccan Government. A large proportion of the Sahrawi population lives in refugee camps in Algeria. The rest lives in the western part of the Territory under Moroccan rule or in the eastern part that is in the hands of the Frente POLISARIO.

Oxfam has been active in the Algerian refugee camps since 1975. Our programme is implemented in close coordination with local partners. Our work focuses on:

1. Providing support to refugees
2. Providing Food, addressing malnutrition
3. Supporting youth and grass-root initiatives
4. Developing a strong advocacy strategy in coordination with RiC team to find a fair, sustainable political solution

Your Role

• You will contribute to and implement Oxfam’s Global Strategy, by providing vision and strategic direction to all of Oxfam’s work in Western Sahara/Algeria. This includes Oxfam’s humanitarian responses, long term development programme design and implementation, advocacy and policy and influencing.
• You will be responsible and accountable for the strategic direction and effective management of country programming, ensuring development, continued improvement in quality and impact and effective financial and human resource management in line with Oxfam Policy.
• You will line manage the Country Management Team and manage the work in the country which will include: staff, budgets, funding and programme, ensuring that managers in country are in accordance with Oxfam’s policies and procedures, including but not limited to the Code of conduct, Performance Management, Security, Health and Safety and local legislation. You will ensure that appropriate systems are in place to manage security, financial, and administrative risks in Western Sahara/Algeria.
• You will take a lead in representing Oxfam and the country programme nationally and globally; build influential relationships and develop networks for effective change, both internally and externally, and committed to maximising our influencing capability. In particular, you will ensure good relations with internal audiences and external stakeholders including but not limited to government, media, donors, nongovernmental sector and supporters.
• You will be responsible to implement the Oxfam 2020 Vision in Western Sahara/Algeria which aims to create a stronger Oxfam that is globally coordinated and relevant in every country in which we work. Aiming to create a future where Oxfam is a more interdependent network, driven more by knowledge, organized for more simplicity internally and more globally balanced.

We can offer you

• A competitive salary
• Based in Algiers, with several missions to the Sahrawis camps
• Start date : April 2017

To apply

• Send cover letter and cv to jobs@oxfamsol.be (Ref. Country Dir SAH)
• Applications close: 29 January 2017

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organization.