ECONOMIC JUSTICE DESK OFFICER

Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty.

We tackle the inequality that keeps people poor. Together we save, protect and rebuild lives. When disaster strikes, we help people build better lives for themselves, and for others. We take on issues like land rights, climate change and discrimination against women. And we won’t stop until every person on the planet can enjoy life free from poverty.

We are an international confederation of 20 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 the Oxfam core values: Equality, Empowerment, Accountability, Inclusiveness, Courage, Solidarity.

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and promoting the welfare of anyone. 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.

Note: All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and may be subject to appropriate screening checks, which can include a misconduct disclosure scheme, criminal records and terrorism finance checks.

How to apply

Interested candidates should send their CV, the details of 3 professional references and self-presentation letter, before November 27th, 2022 to the email address [email protected].

Please specify in the reference: “Desk officer_MENA_name_surname”

Description

Oxfam Italia is an independent NGO established in Italy at the beginning of the ‘70s and now working in several countries. Oxfam Italia was born from the experience of UCODEP, an Italian NGO committed for over 30 years in the struggle against poverty and injustice. Oxfam Italia is the Italian member within the International Confederation of Oxfam, the fourth international coalition in the world, specialized in humanitarian aid and development programs.

 Job Purpose

Within the External Programs Office in Oxfam Italy, the Economic Justice Program is supporting the Oxfam work in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) since many years and has the ambition to consolidate its activities in the coming year, looking also at potential for expansion in the Horn of Africa (HECA) and Southern Africa (SAF) regions.

The purpose of this program is to enable marginalized women and men, especially young people, to cope with the effects of economic poverty and to have greater access and control over goods and opportunities to reduce inequality, injustice and alleviate poverty. To achieve this, the program aims to promote inclusive markets, develop innovative businesses (including social enterprises), decent work opportunities and access to income. The Economic Justice Program works at the ecosystem involving all the main actors including private and public authorities. Finally, the Economic Justice program sees sustainability, in terms of triple bottom-lines, and therefore economic, social and environmental sustainability, as a characteristic feature of its actions.

The Economic Justice Program strategy is building on the experience already developed in the MENA with multiple projects covering 6 Countries in the MENA Region supported by different donors and with a variety of local and international partners.

Building on this experience, the Desk Officer will work under the supervision of the Economic Justice Lead to consolidate and enhance the Oxfam work in the sector of private sector engagement and access to finance in Palestine and MENA Region by providing managerial and strategic steer, by developing new strategic partnerships and by contributing to new and ongoing related projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage strategic partnerships with key actors working on private sector, impact measurement and access to finance/inclusive finance locally and internationally.
• Lead or participate, through technical guidance, to new project proposals development,
• Keep constantly abreast on latest developments on access to finance and private sector development in the occupied Palestinian Territory and the in MENA region
• Overall responsible for project management and budget monitoring assigned to his/her responsibility in the occupied Palestinian Territory, e and potentially in other Middle Eastern countries.
• Guide, together with the MEAL advisor, yearly learnings on access to finance and private sector development with Oxfam’s Country Offices, partners, and Oxfam Affiliates
• Represent Oxfam Italia in thematic events (seminars, round tables, workshops) related to economic justice interventions
• Serve as representative to donor and other international stakeholders regarding economic justice matters in the occupied Palestinian Territory and Middle East.
• By facilitating strong linkages between Country Directors and relevant teams in in HQ, the Desk Officer will contribute to address emerging issues, enhance program quality in country, strengthen back-donor fundraising, identify potential bottlenecks and play a proactive role in arranging solutions;

Skills and competencies

• Minimum of 8 years professional work experience in international work in areas related to: support to private sector, support to women and youth entrepreneurship and access to finance.
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in the occupied Palestinian Territory or in the Middle East;
• Demonstrated work experience in social entrepreneurship, SMEs technical and financial support, local economic development and livelihoods;
• Demonstrated analytical skills and experience in assessing the financial viability of start-ups, enterprises and social enterprises
• Solid project management experience, including in working with local partners;
• Capacity in proposals identification and development, in compliance with donors’ rules;
• Strong MEAL experience, including in complex programmes with high-profile evaluations;
• Knowledge of main Institutional donors for Oxfam Italia: AICS and EU
• Experience in representation and networking, in particular with Governments, humanitarian and development actors and Donors;
• A Bachelor Degree in international relations, economy, political science or related field;
• A Master degree on fields related to sustainable finance, economics or related fields will be considered as an asset
• High-level communications and people management skills;
• Excellent writing and communication skills able to negotiate effectively between different stakeholders;
• Professional fluency in written and spoken Italian and English. Professional fluency in written and spoken French and/or Arabic will be considered an asset.

This job description is not included in the employment contract.  It is intended as a guide and should not be viewed as an inflexible specification as it may be varied from time to time in the light of strategic developments and following discussion with the post holder.

 SELECTION PROCESS

CVs will be pre-selected according to their coherence with the required profile. Selected candidates will be contacted for a written test and those who are considered eligible will be called for interviews.

We thank all those who apply, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Note: for more information about the organization, please consult our webpage: www.oxfamitalia.org