Categories: Vacancies, April 2026

INFLUENCING, POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Organization: Oxfam

Deadline: April 2, 2025

Job Description

ABOUT OXFAM

Oxfam is a global community that believes poverty isn’t inevitable. It’s an injustice that can be overcome. We are shop volunteers, women’s rights activists, marathon runners, aid workers, coffee farmers, street fundraisers, goat herders, policy experts, campaigners, water engineers, and more.

And we won’t stop until everyone can live life without poverty for good.

Oxfam GB is a member of the international confederation Oxfam.

OUR VALUES AND COMMITMENT TO SAFEGUARDING

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 committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people, adults, and beneficiaries with whom Oxfam GB engages. 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.

The post holder will undertake the appropriate level of training and is responsible for ensuring that they understand and work within the safeguarding policies of the organization.

OUR WORK IN ETHIOPIA

Since the early 1970s, we have been working to address the underlying causes of poverty and marginalization by focusing on developing sustainable livelihoods, providing water and sanitation, agriculture, climate research, gender, and humanitarian issues.

TEAM PURPOSE: To support Northern Ethiopian populations to access appropriate and equitable assistance that meets short-term humanitarian needs and mid-long-term development-related needs and priorities. To ensure quality, timely and safe delivery of comprehensive and integrated projects and program in Northern Ethiopia (Afar, Amhara, Tigray Regions).

JOB PURPOSE:

The Programme Manager is responsible for leading and manage the Oxfam team working in the Northern Ethiopia programme office (and sub-offices) overseeing projects, programmes and support services.

DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE:

Strategic Alignment and visioning: Outcome-oriented and ensuring that each project within the program supports the programmatic vision and the programme contributes to the organization’s strategic objectives and priorities.

Resource Allocation: Optimizing the allocation of resources (e.g., finances, personnel, equipment) across projects and program initiatives to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks across the programme/ portfolio to minimize potential negative impacts on the organization.

Advocacy & Influencing: Contribute to Oxfam’s advocacy and influencing initiatives by suggesting advocacy and influencing asks around projects and programme; representation in public and private domains for advocacy and influencing for policy initiatives within the country, cluster, regional and global programmes in line with Oxfam’s priorities and values.

Performance Monitoring: Tracking the progress and performance of projects and initiatives within the programme/ portfolio to ensure they meet their objectives and deliver expected benefits.

Decision-Making: Decisiveness and making informed decisions about starting, continuing, or stopping projects and initiatives based on their performance and alignment with programmatic strategic goals.

An understanding of the wider issues of the team members’ professional work, the international humanitarian context, working in volatile and complex setup, Oxfam’s ways of working, the priorities of other departments/regions within Oxfam.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategy, Leadership and Management
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Work with the Country Director, Programme Director and is a member of the Ethiopia Country Leadership Team (CLT), participating in providing overall leadership and strategic direction to OiE country office.
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Ensure that influencing and communications functions are recognised, integrated and reflected in the overall strategic thinking of the CLT, accompanied with adequate resources and other forms of essential support.
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Act as the OiE technical focal point on matters of influencing, policy, communication and media, working closely with Oxfam in Africa team, Oxfam AU liaison team, Oxfam International team, and Oxfam affiliates, promote OiE’s influencing agenda and overall visibility across the Confederation.
Job profile Influencing, Policy and Communications version 1 – 11/03/2025
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As a member of the Country Leadership Team, the manager supports the country team to deliver and regularly update an Advocacy, Policy and Communications strategy and other key outputs, which should be aligned with the OiE Country Strategy and broader regional and global objectives.
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Ensure periodic monitoring, measurement and evaluation of advocacy and policy indicators, undertaking regular reflection and review for continuous improvement.
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Manage advocacy, policy and communications, providing technical thematic expertise across the nexus, flexibly embedding inequality, gender, rights and justice framing in the country’s influencing agenda.
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Work closely with Oxfam in Africa team, Oxfam Pan-Africa team, Oxfam International team, and Oxfam affiliates to ensure coordinated and strategic approaches to advocacy, policy and communication. Ensures OiE participation and messaging is present in relevant regional, continental and global influencing mechanisms with the ultimate goal of contributing to impact to communities
Policy and Influencing
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Act as the OiE technical focal point on matters of influencing, policy, communication and media, working in close coordination with colleagues across the region and globally to promote OiE’s influencing agenda and overall visibility across the Confederation.
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Representing Oxfam externally with policymakers, other decisionmakers and stakeholders, linking OiE with existing networks of expertise and influence within and beyond the organisation.
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Coordinates OiE’s external representation with policymakers, other decisionmakers and stakeholders, linking OiE with existing networks of expertise and influence within and beyond the organisation at the national, regional and global levels, in line with agreed delegation and division of labour.
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Updates the influencing Strategyand guide OiE influencing and communications agenda towards decolonial and feminist approaches, working in solidarity with and supporting Oxfam’s partners in joint advocacy initiatives.
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Delivers timely intelligence and effective analysis of the policies, practices, communications, and decisions relevant to Oxfam’s programmes.
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Coordinates development of well-grounded policy positions across programme areas.
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Ensures, as per delegation by the CD, Oxfam representation in key appropriate external policy and media forums based in Addis Ababa, and other locations as appropriate.
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Cultivate and maintain strong and healthy relationships with Oxfam partners reflecting our commitment to decolonisation, supporting our partners and being mindful of our power as Oxfam.
Communications and Media
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Coordinate external visibility of OiE and support partners’external visibility , developing and sharing key messages and products in the national, regional and global media.
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Ensure alignment with Oxfam’s global communications, media standards and practices and adherence to donor visibility guidelines. Supervise the Media and Communications Officer.
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Act as OiE spokesperson, under delegation from programme director and/ or country director
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Developing and maintaining relationships with strategic external media contacts in Ethiopia and the region.
Improving Program quality and supporting overall programme excellence
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Participate in the development and review of the country strategy, fundraising and proposal development initiatives and design of programmes ensuring advocacy and communications functions are embedded in projects and programmes, where they are planned for and adequately resourced.
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Provide policy support, advocacy access, training and capacity strengthening for country colleagues, allies and partners, supporting OiE to reflect Oxfam’s campaigning principles including approaches to develop local ownership and national capacity for advocacy work.
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Work with relevant programme team members to ensure women’s rights and gender justice is embedded in OiE’s Advocacy, Policy and Communications work.
Job profile Influencing, Policy and Communications version 1 – 11/03/2025
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Ensure that programmes relevant to advocacy comply with donor contractual obligations and all reporting is of good quality and is done in a timely manner.
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Include programme learnings in advocacy and policy products.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Most importantly, every individual at Oxfam GB needs to be able to:
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About You

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Most importantly, every individual at Oxfam GB needs to be able to:

Live our values of INCLUSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, EMPOWERMENT, SOLIDARITY, COURAGE, AND EQUALITY

Required to adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values as well as the promotion of gender justice and women’s rights.

Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles.
Our Values

Equality: We believe everyone has the right to be treated fairly and to have the same rights and opportunities.

Empowerment: We acknowledge and seek to expand people’s agency over their lives and the decisions that impact them.

Solidarity: We join hands, support, and collaborate across boundaries in working towards a just and sustainable world.

Inclusiveness: We embrace diversity and difference and value the perspectives and contributions of all people and communities in their fight against poverty and injustice.

Accountability:

We take responsibility for our actions and inaction and hold ourselves accountable to the people we work with and for.

Courage: We speak truth to power and act with conviction on the justice of our causes.
Ensure you commit to our THREE ORGANISATIONAL ATTRIBUTES:

1. Be committed to equal opportunities: demonstrating sensitivity to culture differences and gender equality.
2. Be willing to learn and apply gender mainstreaming, women’s rights, and diversity and inclusion across all aspects of your work.
3. Be committed to undertaking Oxfam’s safeguarding training and adhering to relevant policies, to ensure all people who come into Oxfam are as safe as possible.
Ensure you actively ADOPT OXFAM’S FEMINIST LEADERSHIP APPROACH and applying the principles and twelve practices in your work. Read more about this here:
For this role, we have selected two of the most relevant feminist Leadership practices for this role (which you can read more about here.
1 Self-Awareness
2 Mutual accountability
3 Strategic Thinking and Judgment

SKILS, Experience, Knowledge & Competencies

Essential

Master/ Bachelor’s degree in political science / international Affairs / Public Policy / Government with a focus on conflict and security / humanitarian affairs/governance/gender in emergencies or another relevant field which can bring value to this role.

Minimum 8 years of experience in advocacy, policy analysis, and communications, preferably in a complex and changing context, working with an international NGO and/or UN-Agency, out of which at least 3 years should be supervisory/managerial experience.

Leadership, management, negotiation, and coordination skills (of people and projects) in a complex multi-stakeholder, networked, global and largely virtual environment.

Strong ability to communicate clearly and impactfully with a range of stakeholders, including representing Oxfam in coordination bodies and high-profile international forums.

Exceptional writing, editing and communications skills, including the ability to act as a spokesperson when necessary.

Excellent written and spoken skills in Amharic and English are essential.

Proven ability to manage risk to communities, partners and country programs.

Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills, particularly in cross-cultural contexts.

Ability to think and operate strategically, independently, and creatively.

Previous advocacy and communications capacity-strengthening and training experience.

Knowledge and experience in promoting gender equity, feminist values, and decolonial approaches and an active commitment to promoting the interests of people in all aspects of programme work.

Commitment to Oxfam’s vision and mandate.

Commitment to humanitarian principles.

Ability to travel, including to remote and difficult locations.

Desirable

In-depth understanding of coordination mechanisms, disaster risk reduction, complex humanitarian emergencies, gender, fostering decolonial and locally led partnerships, participative and community-based development, and human rights, the HDP Nexus Approach.

Influencing experience around thematic areas of food insecurity, refugee and internal displacement, conflict and post-conflict contexts, urban development programming

Required Skills