BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE.

Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty. Together we save, protect, and rebuild lives. And we won’t stop until every person on the planet can defeat poverty or any type of inequality or discrimination. We are an international confederation of 19 organizations (affiliates) working together with partners and local communities in the areas of humanitarian, development, and campaigning, in more than 90 countries. All our work is led by three core values: Empowerment, Accountability, Inclusiveness.

Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC sixth assessment Report, 28 February 2022). Climate change is hitting the poorest people on the planet the hardest. Africa, despite its low contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change compared with many other regions. Almost half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa live below the poverty line and depend on climate sensitive activities, such as rain-fed agriculture, herding and fishing, for their livelihoods.

In 2020, approximately 98 million people suffered from acute food insecurity and needed humanitarian assistance in Africa, almost a 40% increase from 2019. Approximately 12% of all new displacements worldwide occurred in the East and Horn of Africa regions, with over 1.2 million new disaster related displacements.

As Oxfam we have defined big ambitions for a just and sustainable world in our global strategic framework 2020-2030, including fighting climate change and aiming for climate justice. The ambitions for climate justice as defined in the Oxfam global strategic framework focus on having governments and corporations stopping destructive practices and instead invest in sustainable solutions. In addition, we have the ambition to have the voices of feminist organizations, youth, and indigenous peoples amplified in climate negotiations, and have them lead the transition towards greener and fairer economic solutions.

Even though climate justice is a new ambition in the global strategic framework, a solid number of African country programmes has worked on climate justice for multiple years and have built a substantial track record.

Specifically, Oxfam/Somalia/Somaliland is implementing a programme in Somalia with the goal of amplifying and supporting voices of the most vulnerable groups and their capacity within the context of the climate emergency.

Job Purpose

The purpose of the job is to ensure effective and efficient support for the planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and accountability of AACJ projects. 50% of this role is MEAL support for AACJ projects as a whole in accordance with organizational policies and strategies. The project assistant will work with the Global Monitoring, evaluation, accountability & learning team based in the Netherlands to develop a social audit tool, influencing outcomes and indicators to ensure the policy implementation cycle is tracked and captured key progresses and achievements.

The Project Assistant will support the establishment of a climate justice movement in Somalia /Somaliland with new and old partners and a wide and diverse group of stakeholders including academics, media, government, CSOs, students, activists, youth, and women led organizations.

The Project Assistant is to also support and document correspondences of the program with relevant ministries and agencies of government, the private sector, and regional, continental, and international organizations relevant to the effective coordination of project consortium partners in Somalia and other allies to achieve the project aim.

Job Responsibilities

Admirative and project support

• Ensure the development and implementation of AACJ projects including support for the rollout of  MEAL frameworks.
• Ensure that programme teams and partner organisations adopt a systematic approach to MEAL, and that are able to effectively track outputs and outcomes, and manage and use data effectively.
• Support the AACJ project coordinator for the implementation of the MEAL framework ensuring achievement of MEAL standards and program quality.
• Lead in the procurement of materials and follow up with internal staff and support teams to implement the assigned project.
• Support Program Monitoring, Developing MEAL tools, analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Coordination with the relevant Local Authority and line ministry throughout the implementation period.
• Support the implementation of Climate justice awareness activities for CSOs, Women groups, Youth lead organizations, Academia, and media on climate justice for effective lobby and advocacy.
• Support and ensure proper reporting of activities from Project Coordinator through regularly review of project budgets against actuals ( BvAs) to ensure donor compliances with the support of with business support services/finance team.
• Collate and review reports from Project activities and submit to the Project Coordinator and relevant Line Manager.
• Support with the collation of monthly projects report’s, project implementation follow-up, field visits reports and weekly plans and submit to the Project Coordinator, ensure internal and external reporting are submitted on time with quality and develop project related communications material for internal and external profiling and use.
• Develop and support effective communication mechanisms between the project teams and all stakeholders at national, Alliance and global levels.
• Perform any other task as assigned in by the project Coordinator.

Climate Campaigns

• Build and maintain partnerships with external campaigning partners and activists.
• Document and develop project success stories and stories of change
• Support Designing and delivering impactful influencing activities within the project, including public awareness and behaviour change campaigns, political and private sector influencing campaigns, and activist and public mobilisation campaigns in line with project objectives.
• Ensuring that campaigns work is developed based on the experiences of the country program, allies, and partners, and ensuring they are reflective of the lived experiences of people living in poverty, and that they are delivered in a non-extractive, decolonised anti-racist feminist way.

Other

• Adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values (click here) as well as the promotion of gender justice and women’s rights (click here).
• Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles.

Job Requirements

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in social or environmental field/climate change.
•  At least 3-4 years of Experience of working within either humanitarian sector, DRR, Resilience, Climate Change or with youth or women’s empowerment in Somalia/Somaliland.
• A proven track record in leading successful campaigns or advocacy initiatives that contributed to policy / practice / behavioural changes preferable related to climate change/ resilience/ DRR and/or women and youth empowerment. Comfortable with complexity and the need for agility
• Excellent project management skills and experience, including budget management, coordination with partners and reporting.
•  Previous Experience in working with INGOs, NGOs and UN in Somalia/Somaliland In Humanitarian setting.
• Excellent communications and writing skills with previous experience of developing policy briefs, advocacy papers and communications material.
• Ability to manage large amounts of work, outstanding prioritisation and time management skills.

Desirable

• Experience of managing consortium or partnership projects
• Good understanding of climate crisis and climate justice
• Experience working with the media.
• Experience working with artists.
• Excellent understanding of, commitment to and experience of embedding and continuously learning and partner led approach in your work

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.