HEAD OF PROGRAMMES
Job Details
HEAD OF PROGRAMMES (INT10942)
Location: Iraq - Erbil Workplace Type: On-site Hours: 40 hours per week Salary: As per oxfam Salary Scale Job Family: Programme Division: International Grade: C1 Job Type: Fixed Term Closing Date: 7 March 2025 Country: Iraq
DEPARTMENT PURPOSE:
The Programme Team is overall responsible, and accountable for the development, design, management, and monitoring of country programmes for Oxfam in Iraq. The Programme Team is responsible for ensuring that the Oxfam country programmes align with the Oxfam Country Strategy (OCS) and address priority needs and contextual trends.
The team is tasked with designing programmes that are relevant and responsive to the country's needs, considering the political, economic, social, and cultural context. This requires a thorough understanding of the local context, including the needs of vulnerable communities and the challenges they face. Additionally, the Programme Team is responsible for effectively managing and monitoring the implementation of these programmes to ensure they are delivered efficiently and effectively. They must ensure that the programmes are in line with the Oxfam in Iraq's overall objectives and outcomes and that they contribute to the organization's mission of ending poverty and inequality.
The Programme Team works closely with other teams within Oxfam in Iraq to ensure coherence and alignment with the overall strategy. They must also engage with external stakeholders, including partners, donors, and government agencies, to build relationships and secure support for the programmes. Furthermore, the Programme Team must ensure that the programmes are sustainable and have a lasting impact on the communities they serve. This requires a focus on building the capacity of local partners and communities to ensure they can continue to benefit from the programmes long after Oxfam's intervention has ended.
The Programme Team plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of Oxfam in Iraq's programmes. Their responsibilities range from design and development to management and monitoring, ensuring alignment with the Oxfam Country Strategy and addressing priority needs and contextual trends. Their work is critical to advancing Oxfam's mission of ending poverty and inequality, and it requires close collaboration with other teams and external stakeholders to achieve lasting impact.
TEAM PURPOSE:
Oxfam has been working in Iraq since the 1990’s responding to both humanitarian crises as well as to development needs. In 2025 Oxfam implements work through 2 offices in Anbar and Erbil. Our humanitarian and development priorities in country are Climate Justice, Economic Justice and Gender. The role ensures cross-cutting technical leadership and integrated program delivery.
Across these themes, our programmatic approach is:
· Continually looks to improve quality and lead through innovation.
· Mainstreams gender and ensures women’s rights are at the heart of everything Oxfam does.
· Establishes and maintains transformative partnerships to facilitate local leadership
· Promotes complementary advocacy, where possible, to influence systemic change
The Head of Programmes will play a pivotal role in ensuring efficient, effective, and sustainable program delivery. This includes leading program design, development, and implementation while working closely with the Funding Coordinator (BD and Grants) to secure program funding and drive new program development.
JOB PURPOSE: Head of Programmes will play a pivotal role in ensuring efficient, effective, and sustainable program delivery. This includes leading program design, development, and implementation while working closely with the Funding Coordinator (BD and Grants) to secure program funding and drive new program development.
As such, the Head of Programmes has a crucial role in strategy development and adherence, and is responsible for ensuring that policies, systems, and people are continuously and accurately working in a coordinated manner to ensure that a coherent and comprehensive program is designed and implemented.
The position is also responsible for cross-cutting programmatic information management, sound design of and overseeing assessments, monitoring, and evaluation, and ensuring that information collected is reflected upon, used to improve ongoing projects, and is incorporated into consistently high-quality grant proposals and reports. S/he also plays a key role in fundraising activities and external representation, alongside the Country Director, and acts as the primary focal point for Oxfam’s programming portfolio in Iraq.
In order to ensure successful program implementation, the Head of Programmes needs to have an in-depth understanding of the country context and be able to identify and analyse key issues in order to develop appropriate strategies and ensure effective implementation. S/he should have strong interpersonal and communication skills and be able to work collaboratively with both internal and external stakeholders, including the government, NGOs, UN agencies and other key actors. Furthermore, it is important that the Head of Programmes is able to work in a dynamic and challenging environment and is able to work both independently and as part of a team.
The Head of Programmes is a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) and is expected to be committed Oxfam’s vision and values and lead with integrity. The position holder has to demonstrate strong leadership skills and be able to manage, motivate and inspire their team. They must also be able to analyse complex information and make sound decisions and be able to develop and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
We are looking for an experienced professional with a passion for delivering quality programming to ensure our success in Iraq
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE
Head of Programmes is responsible for developing a long-term vision and strategic planning to achieve significant impact through high-quality programming and leadership. The role involves supporting the fundraising team and the policy and advocacy team, and lead where appropriate, strategic engagement with partners. The successful candidate coordinates and oversees delivery of agreed plans and programmes, integrating humanitarian response and development programmes with policy and advocacy based on the One Oxfam programme approach.
The Head of Programmes must be able to deal with complex, non-routine, and unexpected management tasks and problems. They represent Oxfam in coordination meetings and critical external relationships with municipalities and governance structures, humanitarian stakeholders, and interagency coordination. The successful candidate shows an ability to analyze and communicate complex information to a wide audience. The individual must also demonstrate decision-making that is strategic and operational, requiring significant levels of judgment based on technical and management experience, and a range of external and internal factors.
The Head of Programmes must demonstrate well-developed abilities to motivate and persuade at many levels and recognizes the support required to manage change. They are a role model for their team in this process. The role impacts and influences within the country programme and influences the diverse internal/external target audiences both at country and above country level, requiring proven communication, facilitation, and representation skills.
The individual will manage staff and have budgetary responsibility for multiple programmes, involving strong operational management experience and capability. They will provide specialist advice to country and regional management on humanitarian and development issues and possibly interface with media/public on humanitarian and development issues. In-depth knowledge of the
