Manager Humanitarian Response & Preparedness

Reference number: INT3128 

Team and Job Purpose

As a key player in the country team, the position holder is expected to:

• To design and implement timely, effective & efficient, quality, humanitarian response(s).
• Provide strategic leadership and develop a long term vision for Oxfam’s humanitarian programme;
• To support Oxfam in strengthening its advocacy capacity in, preparedness and humanitarian response and focus on specific quality aspects. These will include a women’s rights focus, governance, advocacy and rights based approach to disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response, and to address gender based violence in emergencies and other protection issues of women and girls;
• Develop the capacity of the Pakistan Country Programme team and partners to attain Oxfam’s Humanitarian vision of having in-country capacity to respond to level disasters;
• Ensure timely, efficient, effective and accountable Humanitarian responses, with local partners, to survivors of Category and 2 natural and/or man-made disasters, increasingly in a complex environment;
• Plan and manage human and financial resources and processes related to the humanitarian programme implementation;
• Integrate the Disaster Risk Reduction strategies into our “one programme” approach so that we may better address chronic and acute vulnerability to disasters
• Represent Oxfam in Pakistan in external and internal forums;
• Contribute to develop long term vision and strategic planning to achieve significant impact from programmes and attain our Humanitarian and Resilience vision for Pakistan, using a rights-based and results-based approach to work;
• Manage Humanitarian and Resilience/DRR teams. Lead and deliver agreed plans and strategies related to the OCS outcomes on ‘Saving Lives Now and in Future’, complying to all OGB systems compliance requirements;
• Plan and manage human, logistic and financial resources in consultation and cooperation with relevant Support teams;
• Management of a broad spectrum of programmes, with a variety of competencies and skills required.  Management tasks and problems are diverse and complex and involve a significant degree of risk (financial, security, brand, etc);
• Working autonomously with significant financial, human resource, security, contract management and representational responsibility, internally and externally;
• Decision-making requires significant levels of judgement based on technical and management experience, generally actively supported within line management or the programme team;
• Work with the Programme Director and other teams to develop to manage the formulation, organisation and delivery of high-level lobbying, and advocacy as part of the programme;
• Support the alignment of programmes with Oxfam corporate relevant campaigns and ensure effective harmonisation of planning and management with Oxfam International;
• Plan and implement fundraising strategies and ensure proper compliance to relevant policies, guidelines and agreements of Government, multilateral and bilateral agencies and donors;
• Bringing in innovation, best practices and learning; especially on women’s leadership, markets based responses and a resilience-building approach to disasters management;

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities                 

Humanitarian Vision and Strategy:

• To develop and drive the vision and strategy for Oxfam’s humanitarian work in Pakistan, based on the Country strategy, taking advantage of our recent experiences in implementing large scale humanitarian programmes;
• Lead Humanitarian responses, defining the strategy, partnerships, resourcing needed to implement responses in an efficient, effective and accountable manner;
• To increase the capacity of partners and Oxfam to respond to the different humanitarian events;
• To ensure effective programme management within the Pakistan Programme to promote and support all aspects of preparedness planning and action within Pakistan;
• To promoting a continuous learning environment within the country programme through dissemination of up-to-date thinking on humanitarian issues, in particular emergency preparedness and good practice in resilience-building approaches in disasters management;
• To ensure women’s leadership approach in our humanitarian strategy;
• Support the team to ensure programme learning and innovation are documented and shared at appropriate national, regional and international l level;
• Ensure active and effective collaboration with the OI Rights in Crisis (RiC) and other relevant campaigns;
• Ensuring on-going analysis of humanitarian trends within Pakistan, especially through the identification and the development of contacts with reliable forecasting or early warning information as well as resource organisations;

Humanitarian response:

• In major emergencies requiring scaled-up or especially sensitive response, to be instrumental in the process of assessment, programme design and resourcing, and support to proposal writing.
• To work with the country humanitarian team to ensure that Oxfam has the necessary capacity to meet the management, logistical and technical requirements of any humanitarian programme undertaken and to ensure effective coordination of Oxfam’s response with Oxfam International, UN agencies, the Red Cross/Crescent and other NGOs as well as with government response mechanisms, particularly NDMA.
• To collaborate with in-country colleagues, in the development of the humanitarian policy and advocacy strategy and content.
• To assist with the delivery of out-of-country programmes, when identified as a regional priority, by arrangement with line manager.

Programme/Project Cycle Management:

• At times of crisis, coordinate timely engagement of Oxfam in participatory needs assessment with Partners, OI Affiliates, Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), National Humanitarian Network (NHN), UN-led Cluster and/or National and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities and other Government representatives, as the crisis situation dictates/allows;
• Ensure the development of timely Humanitarian concept notes/project proposals for  humanitarian response(s) and DRR;
• Leading on designing new programmes/interventions through good field based assessments and design;
• Ensure compliance with Oxfam monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning expectations and approach; develop initiatives for continuous learning, pilots and innovation;
• Ensure maintenance/compliance of OPAL (Oxfam Project Management Software)
• Logistics and general administrative management in compliance with Oxfam policies, procedures and guidelines and in consultation and coordination with the Logistics and Administration team who will ensure that sufficient technical, legal and advisory support is provided as required;
• Contract management in compliance with Oxfam, Government of Pakistan (GoP) and Donor policies, procedures and guidelines; in consultation and coordination with the Funding team who will ensure that sufficient technical, legal and advisory support is provided as required;

Programme quality:

• Ensure that Oxfam humanitarian work in Pakistan adheres to relevant policy commitments and
• minimum standards and to promote these, including:
• The SPHERE Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards
• The Code of Conduct for Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in disaster response
• Oxfam International Humanitarian Contract
• Oxfam gender standards in Humanitarian Response (draft), in liaison with regional gender advisor
• People in aid code of good practice and The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership/(now) Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS).
• To promote systematic programme review/evaluation to ensure that lessons learnt are documented and shared for cross-programme learning in the country to inform future responses.

External Representation:

• Facilitate funding and non-funding partnership (within Oxfam partnership policy) to increase participation and design of quality capacity building plans for partners.  Including NGO partners, networks, alliances, institutions, UN, Government of Pakistan, etc.
• Actively engage with the Cluster mechanism at times of crisis
• Manage Oxfam International affiliate relations and communications by: proactively participating in, and when necessary, leading Humanitarian Coordination meetings; ensuring timely information and finalisation of OI situation reports; engagement in OI telecoms / video cons; etc.

Financial Management:

• Manage the programme finances in the country, including: annual budgeting for humanitarian response work; collaboration and engagement with Fundraising colleagues over donor development strategy;
• To actively manage donor contracts, including timely, and accurate reporting.
• Emergency and non-emergency finance resource management in compliance with Oxfam policies, procedures and guidelines and in consultation and coordination with the Finance team who will ensure that sufficient technical, legal and advisory support is provided as required.  

Team Management:

• Human resource management in compliance with Oxfam policies, procedures and guidelines and in consultation and coordination with the Human Resource team who will ensure that sufficient technical, legal and advisory support is provided as required.   Manage a multidisciplinary team of programme and technical staff. Performances manage all direct line reports including development and coaching of staff.
• Team building and development of team capacity, with particular focus on developing skills, knowledge and capacity relevant to attaining the Pakistan Country Programmes  objectives and vision

Cross-cutting Activities:

• Gender - Supported by the Gender team, ensure gender is mainstreamed into all programme, partnership and advocacy activities.
• Partnership - Ensure best practice by the team by compliance to Oxfam’s Partnership policy, procedures and guidelines; and through Partner monitoring and capacity building.
• Governance – Work with Partners to advocate/strengthen/develop national level policies, procedures, and Pakistan’s governance framework, relevant to Humanitarian and Resilience programmes; with particular focus on ensuring the delivery of an effective, efficient, timely humanitarian response to natural and man-made disasters; and work with national government on preparedness initiatives that support and further strengthen their social protection framework (such as safety nets).
• Accountability - Ensure quality, transparent and accountable programming to beneficiaries, Partners, GoP, Donors and Oxfam, with established mechanisms for complaints and feedback.
• Advocacy – In collaboration with the Gender team, ensure the rights of women, men and those most vulnerable are upheld; and that international commitments and agreed principles, standards and codes are understood, promoted and complied. (These include: The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, the SPHERE Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards, the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), the Guiding Principles for Working with Internally Displaced Persons (OCHA)).
• Coordination - Ensure excellent internal and external communication, coordination and collaboration.
• Results based management – Using the logical framework process to programme planning/design, monitoring and evaluation ensure qualitative and quantitative information that provides evidence of impact and change.
• Disaster Risk Reduction & Climate Change – Ensure the DRR& CC integration into Humanitarian Response and Preparedness activities.

Miscellaneous:

• Be prepared to undertake other duties related to Oxfam’s programme as and when required by the Programme Director.

Technical Skills, Experience & Knowledge

Essential

• Education to a Masters degree level preferably in social sciences,  international development, livelihoods and humanitarian assistance;
• 5 to 7 years experience in the field leading humanitarian and/or preparedness programmes;
• Knowledge and experience of emergency and development issues; deep understanding of causes of emergencies, emergency programming and links with policy;
• Proven experience of building and leading teams and evidence of strong people management skills;
• Proven programme & project cycle management skills - proposal and report writing skills; monitoring and evaluation skills and experience;
• Knowledge and experience of promoting gender equity, and an active commitment to promoting the interests of marginalized people in all aspects of Oxfam's work;
• Ability to work with others to develop vision into strategy and communicating and influencing this to a wider audience;
• Proven knowledge of computerized system; high degree of computer literacy and word processing and spreadsheet skills essential;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Urdu;
• Ability to work under pressure, prioritises well and meet deadlines;
• Ability to travel extensively, especially to remote disaster prone/affected areas;
• Commitment to the aims and objectives of Oxfam including gender policies and code of conduct;
• Strong understanding of humanitarian principles and standards and how it is applied in emergency contexts;
• Proven evidence of strong experience in capacity building and mentoring to others;
• Experience of working with partners and good practical knowledge of good partnership principles;
• Evidence of knowledge on conflict sensitivity and how Do No Harm Approach can be well formulated in humanitarian programme;
• An ability to play in active external influencing role with an ability to nuance messaging appropriately and negotiate in a non-confrontational/alienating manner;
• Strong experience in proposal writing and donor reporting;

Desirable

• Strategic thinking and planning skills
• Ability to evaluate and judge complex issues and identify critical issues to ensure an effective focus.
• Good understanding of, and commitment to, gender equity (particularly around poor women's rights)
• Innovative and creative approach to problem solving

Key Behavioural Competencies (based on Oxfam’s Leadership Model)

Decisiveness

We are comfortable to make transparent decisions and to adapt decision making modes to the context and needs.

Influencing

We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organisation We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.

Humility

We put ‘we’ before ‘me’ and place an emphasis on the power of the collective, nurture the team and play to the strengths of each individual. We are not concerned with hierarchical power, and we engage with, trust and value the knowledge and expertise of others across all levels of the organization

Relationship Building

We understand the importance of building relationship, within and outside the organization. We have the ability to engage with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders in ways that lead to increased impact for the organisation.

Listening

We are good listeners who can see where deeper levels of thoughts and tacit assumptions differ. Our messages to others are clear, and consider different preferences.

Mutual Accountability

We can explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values.  We are ready to be held to account for what we do and how we behave, as we are also holding others to account in a consistent manner

Agility, Complexity, and Ambiguity

We scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways

Systems Thinking

We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organisational decisions and actions

Strategic Thinking and Judgment

We use judgment, weighing risk against the imperative to act. We make decisions consistent with organizational strategies and values.

Vision Setting

We have the ability to identify and lead visionary initiatives that are beneficial for our organization and we set high-level direction through a visioning process that engages the organization and diverse external stakeholders

Self-Awareness

We are able to develop a high degree of self-awareness around our own strengths and weaknesses and our impact on others. Our self-awareness enables us to moderate and self-regulate our behaviors to control and channel our impulses for good purposes

Enabling

We all work to effectively empower and enable others to deliver the organizations goals through creating conditions of success. We passionately invest in others by developing their careers, not only their skills for the job.  We provide freedom; demonstrate belief and trust provide appropriate support. We give more freedom and demonstrate belief and trust, underpinned with appropriate support