Regional Project Manager

REGIONAL CSO INITIATIVE FOR EQUITABLE FINANCING IN MENA

MENA REGIONAL PLATFORM

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behavior 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.

Annual Salary and Benefits

National terms and conditions, subject to location

Internal Job Grade

C2

Contract type

Fixed term, 1 year renewable based on funding availability

Reporting to

Line management: Regional Head of Programmes – MENA Regional Platform

Matrix management: MENA Advocacy and Campaigns Manager.

Staff reporting directly to this post

None

Key relationships/interactions

Senior Inequality Policy Advisor, Regional Head of Programmes, MENA Advocacy and Campaigns Manager, Regional Communications Advisor, Senior Policy Advisor for International Financial Institutions, project partners (The Arab NGO Network for Development, and the Arab Watch Coalition), Oxfam’s Country offices the Middle East and North Africa (with a specific focus on Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Yemen), Regional Admin and Finance Officer, and Oxfam America colleagues.

Location

Preferably based in any of: Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Occupied Palestinian Territories . Outside of these countries, candidates could eventually be based where there is an Oxfam legal presence and in a similar time zone to the MENA region. Candidates need to be legally entitled to work in the country where they are based.

The position will require some travel within the MENA region (Covid- 19 permitting).

Shaping a stronger Oxfam for people living in poverty.

Department Purpose

The Regional Platform (RP) of Oxfam in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has a mandate to:

• Provide strategic leadership, management & accountability of and to Oxfam country programmes in MENA.
• Deliver regional impact, developing partner relationships, brand and impact in the region through relevant influencing and advocacy work, public engagement and programming
• Connect, coordinate, convene – Connect practitioners to sources of expertise, convene people to share knowledge and learnings, and coordinate capacity building initiatives
• Enable operational agility and efficiency – Provide support to Oxfam country offices

Team Purpose

The ‘Regional CSO Initiative for Equitable Financing in MENA’ is a 30 month, regional programme implemented by The Arab NGO Network for Development, the Arab Watch Coalition and Oxfam, and is funded by the Ford Foundation. The project aims to impact decision-making towards more equitable international financing for economic recovery in the MENA region, through sustainable joint civil society action to challenge narratives and policies around debt, austerity and inequality, including specific actions targeted to international financing institutions and governments. The initiative will foster awareness, dialogue,

mobilization and alliance building at the regional and national levels in MENA, using the issuance of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as an opportunity to catalyse efforts from different actors, to invest them in ways that reduce austerity, and have a real impact on people’s lives.

Activities of the project will be mainly implemented by Oxfam’s Regional Platform and regional partners, in collaboration with country offices in the target countries, as well as regional and local civil society. The programme will be implemented in MENA, with a specific focus on the following 7 countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Yemen.

Job Purpose

The position of Regional Project Manager will lead on and is accountable for all the programmatic, management and partnership aspects of the project, and exercises direct management of the activities which are implemented by the Oxfam RP in collaboration with project partners, wider civil society, and Oxfam country offices in the target countries. The Regional Project Manager will be responsible for the project cycle’s proper management, including financial monitoring, monitoring and evaluation, drafting and reviewing progress and donor reports, planning and promoting learning. The Regional Project Manager will also manage all aspects of sub-grants to partners in collaboration with RP team, will build relationships with key stakeholders, and support in identifying further funding opportunities and new project ideas in line with

Oxfam’s agenda on inequalities in the MENA region. Together with Senior Policy Advisor in the RP, this position will be key to facilitate and coordinate actions implemented by project partners and ensure strategic alignment.

Job Responsibilities

1. Project Management - 40%
   • Oversee the implementation of all aspects of the project (technical steer and project management) while ensuring coherence, standardized approaches, and programme quality – in line with the project’s influencing objectives as set in the project proposal;
   • In collaboration with project partners, lead on preparing and revising workplans, spending plans, monitoring and evaluation plans, risk management plans, and other aspects of quality project management;
   • Lead on activities such as research, advocacy campaigns, learning, alliance-building - that are under the direct implementation of the Oxfam Regional Platform, in close collaboration with Regional Platform colleagues and Oxfam country offices;
   • Exercise budgetary oversight on the project as a whole, and on activities directly implemented by Oxfam’s Regional Platform;
   • Lead on and work with partners to put in place appropriate systems, approaches and tools for the monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) of the project;
   • Ensure that the project’s implementation is in compliance with donor requirements and in alignment with Oxfam’s MENA Regional Strategy;
   • Lead on drafting narrative reports to donors, and review project financial reports prepared by the finance team;
   • Lead on the project’s context and risk analysis in the target countries, and advise on amendments to strategies, approaches and activities – where necessary, and in discussion with project partners and Oxfam colleagues.

    

2. Grants and partnerships management – 35%
   • Establish good working relations with project partners, in line with Oxfam’s partnership approach and organizational values;
   • Prepare grants agreements with regional partners, with the support of the finance team;
   • Establish and facilitates a Project Steering Committee, composed of Oxfam and partner staff, to periodically review progress of the project in achieving its expected results, and provide high level steer;
   • Support partners in preparing project workplans, budget forecasts, monitoring and evaluation plans, and other project management instruments;
   • Lead on disbursements of sub-grants to partners, and monitor progress against the project’s expected results;

    

• • Review partners’ narrative and financial reports, and monitor quality of implementation, and spending in the sub-grants to partners.

3. Relationship building, and policy and influencing – 25%
   • Develop and maintain positive relations with relevant stakeholders such as local and regional civil society organizations, think tanks, universities, policy institutes, government counterparts, donors, and other relevant external stakeholders;
   • Facilitate alliance building of Oxfam and partners and other actors.
   • Ensure that findings of the project’s influencing, advocacy and campaigning work are communicated to external and internal audiences, and are feeding into new opportunities for such work in the MENA region;
   • Promotes learning within the project and with external actors
   • Contribute to the development of new funding opportunities in MENA on inequalities, in collaboration with Oxfam Regional Platform and country office teams;
   • Represent Oxfam in meetings with Oxfam affiliates, other country programs, donors and others.

    

Job Requirements

Essential

• • University degree on social sciences or related.
  • Experience in working on inequalities in MENA, and an understanding of International Financial Institutions’ policies in MENA, including their role in post-Covid recovery;
  • Experience in research, influencing, advocacy, and campaigning in MENA;
  • Experience in project management with international NGOs, including in work planning, budget management and oversight, managing sub-grants, monitoring and evaluation, report-writing, among others;
  • Experience in working with local or regional civil society partners;
  • Excellent soft skills such as diplomacy, communication and interpersonal skills, and negotiation;
  • Sensitivity to cultural differences and the ability to work in a variety of cultural contexts within MENA;
  • Willingness and ability to travel within MENA (approx. twice a year);
  • Excellent English and Arabic (reading, speaking, writing)

Desirable

• • A master’s degree in social sciences, international development studies, public policy studies, or equivalent;
  • Experience in managing a regional (multi-country) project;
  • Experience in collaborating with regional partners;

Key Attributes:

• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural differences and gender issues, as well as the commitment to equal opportunities.
• Ability to demonstrate an openness and willingness to learn about the application of gender/gender mainstreaming, women’s rights, and diversity for all aspects of development work.
• Commitment to Oxfam’s safeguarding policies to ensure all people who come into contact with Oxfam are as safe as possible.

Organisational Values:

• Accountability – Our purpose-driven, results-focused approach means we take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions.

• Empowerment – Our approach means that everyone involved with Oxfam, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen.
• Inclusiveness – We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences.

Key Behavioral Competencies

Competencies

Description

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 organization 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.

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.

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.

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.