Overview
The role provides overall strategic leadership for Oxfam’s climate and economic justice thematic portfolio, ensuring programming aligns with regional priorities and global frameworks. It also involves leading and managing the climate and economic justice team across the Cluster.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and drive strategic thematic priorities across climate adaptation, economic justice, livelihoods, governance, and inequality.
- Position Oxfam as a regional leader on just economies, climate resilience, structural inequality, and economic rights.
- Provide strategic analysis of emerging regional and global trends, policy shifts, and thematic opportunities.
- Advise Cluster leadership on climate and economic justice positioning, priorities, and innovation.
- Ensure thematic strategies support long-term systemic transformation.
- Directly line manage technical and partnerships coordinators across multiple countries.
- Establish strong systems for performance management, staff accountability, professional development, mentoring, and leadership growth.
- Build technical and strategic capacity across the team.
- Foster a collaborative, feminist, inclusive, and high-performing culture.
- Promote strong coordination across country hubs, thematic areas, and partner systems.
- Support staff wellbeing, safeguarding, and duty of care.
- Strengthen succession planning and long-term leadership development.
- Lead development of integrated programme strategies addressing climate vulnerability, livelihood insecurity, economic exclusion, and structural inequality.
- Ensure strong thematic integration with Gender Justice, Humanitarian Action, Governance, and Regional influencing priorities.
- Strengthen programme quality standards, methodologies, and consistency across countries.
- Support design of multi-country, cross-border, and systems-focused initiatives.
- Ensure programming remains partner-led, adaptive, and evidence-informed.
- Promote innovation and effective responses to evolving social, economic, and climate realities.
- Support development of advocacy strategies on climate adaptation, tax justice, economic inequality, livelihood rights, and inclusive governance.
- Translate programme evidence into policy recommendations and strategic influencing opportunities.
- Strengthen alignment between programme delivery and regional policy agendas.
- Support engagement with governments, regional bodies, civil society platforms, and Oxfam affiliates.
- Contribute to Oxfam’s regional and global policy leadership on climate and economic justice.
- Support partners to design and implement transformative climate and economic justice programming.
- Promote equitable partnership models, localisation, and decolonial approaches.
- Strengthen partner technical capacities in programme design, evidence generation, and influencing.
- Ensure partner realities and perspectives shape strategy, programme design, and advocacy.
- Support movement building, coalition strengthening, and civil society leadership.
- Reinforce Oxfam’s role as convenor, catalyst, and strategic ally.
- Lead thematic research, learning, and evidence agendas on inequality, climate vulnerability, economic systems, and livelihoods.
- Strengthen collaboration with PQK teams on research, MEAL, and adaptive learning.
- Ensure programme data and evidence directly inform strategic decisions.
- Promote production of high-quality knowledge products and learning outputs.
- Support documentation and dissemination of innovation and best practice.
- Strengthen evidence-based regional thought leadership.
- Provide technical guidance and strategic support to staff across the Cluster.
- Strengthen integration across thematic teams and programme functions.
- Promote knowledge sharing and methodological consistency.
- Support organisational capacity on climate and economic justice priorities.
- Strengthen internal systems that improve programme coherence and delivery.
- Represent Oxfam in regional forums, SADC platforms, technical working groups, policy spaces, and strategic alliances.
- Build and maintain relationships with donors, partners, governments, civil society actors, and regional institutions.
- Strengthen Oxfam’s external credibility and thematic positioning.
- Promote collaborative regional leadership.
Required Experience
- Minimum of 6 years progressive responsibility in Climate justice, Economic Justice, livelihoods, and inequality programming
- At least 3 years in a team leadership or management role.
- Proven experience in managing teams, multi-country programming, strategic programme design, and policy engagement.
Qualifications
• Master’s degree in development studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, Social Sciences or equivalent qualification. A Bachelor’s degree combined with relevant postgraduate or professional qualifications and significant experience of at least 10 years may be considered.
