Humanitarian Policy Officer Jobs in Oxford, Oxfordshire
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1. Background
The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) promotes evidence-informed equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. We support the generation and effective use of high-quality evidence to inform decision-making and improve the lives of people living in poverty in low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs). We provide guidance and support to produce impact evaluations and associated formative evaluations; systematic reviews and syntheses, evidence gap maps and support for using that evidence in decision-making and capacity development. Our work encompasses a wide range of topics, sectors and themes, including but not limited to health, nutrition, education, agriculture, governance, microfinance, climate change, humanitarian interventions, and social protection. 3ie is registered as a non-governmental organization in the United States. It has offices in New Delhi, London and Washington, DC.
The Contracts and Compliance Officer will support 3ie’s efforts in contract, compliance, safeguarding and risk management guidance and oversight with an emphasis on providing direct billable compliance support to the FCDO Research Commissioning Centre (RCC). The Officer will work closely with various teams across the organization including project, business development, finance, and senior management teams to develop and implement compliance processes, tools, resources, and best practices, provide quality control, and build staff capacity in compliance and risk management. The Contracts and Compliance Officer will report directly to the Cost and Pricing Controller with informal reporting to the RCC Sr. Programme Manager.
2. Key Responsibilities
2.1 FCDO RCC Contracting, Compliance and Risk Management
- Draft, review, and negotiate contracts and grants for sub awardees delivering work under the RCC.
- Support strategies and systems to respond to FCDO and/or RCC project team requests for new research commissions, project related questions, and general advisory services providing information and interpretation on a broad range of topics including contract and subcontracting regulations, compliance procedures, management, and risk mitigation.
- Provide safeguarding leadership, including implementation of best practices for the RCC, review of downstream partner policies and practices, audit of safeguarding procedures, etc.
- Identify and propose mitigation strategies for RCC operational, financial, and other compliance gaps that pose risk to the project and/or 3ie.
- Review and provide guidance on proposed amendments to the RCC accountable grant agreement and daft RCC related subcontracts, sub-grants, amendments, services agreements, and independent contractor agreements.
- Draft and/or support development of approval requests and other donor correspondence related to procurement, grant, consultant, or other contractual actions.
2.2 Organizational Compliance and Risk Management
- Serve as the primary resource and subject matter expert on FCDO contracts, risk, and compliance to ensure quality control and guidance in order to maintain consistent approaches and implement best practices across 3ie’s FCDO portfolio.
- Stay updated on changes in FCDO and other donor rules, regulations, and industry wide compliance best practices.
- Support the development and implementation of 3ie internal policies and procedures to enhance contract and grant compliance. This includes but is not limited to reviewing, analyzing, and making recommendations to current policies, processes, and internal controls to ensure effective and efficient identification and mitigation of noncompliance and risks.
- Recommend improvements to the corporate authorities structure, file/recordkeeping processes, as well as support senior management in organizational risk management.
- Support the development and maintenance of a repository of contract and grant compliance best practices, innovative approaches, guidance documents, and tools.
- Contribute to increasing staff awareness and capacity of donor regulations, 3ie policies, tools, templates, and procedures through formal and ad hoc trainings and development of guidance materials
- Conduct internal compliance audits.
- Assist with ad hoc compliance related tasks as required.
2.3 Business Development
- Review tenders, assist with development of questions and/or responses to tends, and provide ad hoc proposal development needs ensuring consistency with corporate policies and strategies, relevant regulations, and FCDO requirements.
- Support review and negotiation process for new FCDO awards.
3. Qualifications and Skills
- Undergraduate degree in relevant field
- 3-5 years (Officer) or 5+ years (Sr. Officer) of experience in direct contract administration or compliance, preferably with FCDO and/or a mix of bilateral (USAID, GIZ, NORAD), multilateral (UN, World Bank), and foundations (BMGF, GAVI) in the international development context
- Strong knowledge and understanding of FCDO and/or other bilateral and multilateral rules, regulations, and policies required
- Experience with a wide variety of grants, contracts, and subcontract types and methodologies (commercial contracts, accountable grants, framework agreements, hybrid agreements/contracts)
- Experience managing payment by results or performance-based contracts.
- Experience developing and delivering participatory trainings on compliance, regulations, and policies
- Demonstrated experience in conducting internal compliance audits preferred
- Experience with various business development processes including cost and pricing, recruitment, contract negotiations, and/or writing preferred
4. Eligibility
We will recruit one or more individuals, preferably with the right to work in the UK.
3ie is an equal-opportunity employer committed to equality and diversity. We do not discriminate based on sex, age, religion, ethnicity, caste, sexual orientation or for being differently abled. We particularly encourage ethnic minorities and differently abled persons to apply.
5. Terms of Employment
Candidates should be available to start work as soon as possible. 3ie offers competitive remuneration based on location, experience and qualifications.
Our policies and procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults from abuse. We follow a zero-tolerance policy for any form of bullying or harassment in the workplace.
6. How to apply
Your application package must include the following*:
- A cover letter, highlighting your experience relevant to the terms of reference. It is mandatory to include information about your work authorization for the US/UK/ India, else it will be considered as incomplete;
- Curriculum vitae along with names and contact information for at least three professional references.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
*Incomplete applications will not be considered
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
About Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN)
ENN’s vision is: Every individual confronted by malnutrition has access to the knowledge, tools, services and resources they require to meet their needs. Working in a networked approach ENN contributes research, convenes, brokers and exchanges knowledge to support practitioners within national governments, civil society, UN, donor and academic organisations working on malnutrition. Through these collaborations we enable all agencies to implement evidence-based nutrition programming, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries and in fragile and conflict affected states.
ENN is a well-established and highly respected UK-registered organisation established in 1996. ENN is governed by a Board of Trustees and has its head office in Oxfordshire, UK. ENN is financially supported by bilateral donors, international non- governmental organisations and United Nations agencies.
Purpose of the role
To maximise ENN’s impact, functioning and profile through the use of improved communication and digital strategy, accessibility, culture and practice.
Key responsibilities
Communications Strategy
- Lead the development and socialisation of an effective organisational communications strategy and implementation plan
- Analyse and brief ENN team and trustees on evolving Communications and Digital environment.
- Build a Communications and Digital culture through training and mentoring colleagues in the improved use of communications and digital tools and the establishment of organisational norms and ways of working.
- Curation of aligned branding, internal and external communication across all ENN’s workstreams, in line with ENN values and strategic objectives.
- Focal point for all ENN marketing, communications and digital issues
- Understand, segment and expand ENN’s current audience and networks and, in collaboration with others, increase visibility, presence and engagement with ENN’s network and audience
- Develop ENN’s Communications and Digital policies and risk management.
- Work with teams, collaborators and suppliers to embed clear processes, ways of working and guidance to deliver ENN’s communications strategy.
Management and Delivery
- Set up and maintain a communications plan and reporting framework to help drive a coordinated approach to communication across ENN’s portfolio
- Lead work with relevant teams and ENN’s partners to create and deliver digital communications, media and campaign programmes
- Maximise opportunities to drive brand awareness, raise the profile of ENN and engage with press and media where relevant
- Develop, measure and report on metrics, KPIs and other insightful analytics to inform decision making, evaluate impact and contribute to future strategy
- Manage the Communications and Digital Budget and the procurement of comms and digital resources as required
- Ensure internal digital procedures comply with appropriate standards and legislation and develop, monitor and maintain a digital governance model and guidelines which are fully compliant
- The CDM acts as an advisor to ENN’s Management Team, participating in meetings when appropriate, and is a standing member of the Strategic Leadership Team.
Operations and Delivery
Training:
- Oversee ENN and partner awareness, knowledge and understanding of the evolving context and best practices in communications, digital and marketing including use of appropriate media levers
- Develop and implement training programmes and pilots for internal colleagues on the use of all communications media around standards, best practices and house styles, including use of social media
Platform management:
- Manage and develop ENN social media platforms for optimal visibility, engagement and impact, working with donors and collaborators to proactively engage their platforms and networks towards mutually beneficial ends
- Oversee the management and development of ENN’s website including a new CMS and Forum platform
- Review and deliver performance indicators across all relevant platforms to ensure SEO and high user engagement is measured
Content:
- Work with copy editors, proof-readers, designers, podcast and video producers, developers and external agencies to create new, or update existing digital and publications content
- As a member of the FEX editorial team, provide specific and tailored input and support to ENN’s flagship publication Field Exchange (FEX) on style, brand, design and presentation of print and on-line content.
- Develop and apply guidance to ensure content is engaging and consistent with brand, house styles and tone
- Oversee and approve ENN’s social media content
- Develop and manage a bank of content including stories and images for use in ENN’s publications, products, monitoring and evaluation work and media usage.
- Coordinate publication of all marketing and publicity materials to ensure optimised impact
Analytics and reporting:
- Actively use omnichannel and multichannel reporting, analysis and insight to help develop and optimise campaigns, incorporating other monitoring & evaluation outputs where relevant.
- Digital tools - Identify existing and emerging digital metric tools that track and capture the full impact of our online engagement to reveal where and to what extent our work is making a difference
Other
- Other duties as identified with the line manager.
Reporting line: This position reports to ENN’s CEO
Required Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Essential requirements
- Relevant tertiary qualification or experience preferably in media, journalism, science health or humanitarian communications, digital production, marketing or public relations
- Demonstrable experience of creating and implementing successful communication and digital strategies
- Demonstrable experience of planning, creating and publishing engaging content across digital channels
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a proven ability to adapt technical and scientific information for a range of audiences
- Experience in website project management and implementation
- Excellent team-working skills and ability to work collaboratively and autonomously
- Proficient in SEO, Google Analytics, content marketing and digital marketing strategies
- Experience in web content writing and management, web design and database management
- Experience in managing external communications providers including proof-readers, copy-editors, creatives / designers, translators, podcast and video producers, print publishers and web designers
- Excellent personal and professional integrity, strong cross-cultural awareness, demonstrable commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.
- Fluency in English (written and oral)
Desirable
- Experience designing and delivering training in communications, marketing and digital media to colleagues
- Copy-editing / proofreading experience
- Understanding of GDPR regulations relevant to communications and marketing and ability to implement
- Familiarity with relevant guidelines on ethical communications and their relevance and application to ENN’s work
- Understanding of intellectual property rights in relation to digital images and artworks
- Experience working in international development or related sector
- Graphic design experience in applications such as Canva or Adobe products
- Digital Production skills such as video and audio production
- Strong working knowledge of French or Arabic.
Terms and Conditions
Type of contract: Permanent
- Location: Office-based, with the opportunity to work from home 1 – 2 days a week. ENN’s office is in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
- Holidays: 25 days plus UK Public Holidays, increasing by one day per annum after two complete years of service to a maximum of 27 days per annum. Pro-rata for part-time staff.
- Pension: Auto-Enrolment to ENN scheme with a generous Employer contribution of 5%
- Salary: £39,000 per annum, full-time equivalent, dependent on experience and suitability for the role
- Hours of work: We are ideally looking for a full-time candidate (37.5 hours per week), however, applications for part time hours (i.e. a minimum of 0.8FTE / 30 hours per week) may also be considered
- Benefits: Dental cover, Life cover, Employee Assistance Programme, Wellbeing contribution
Eligibility to work
Must have the right to work in the UK at the time of application. A relocation package is not available for this position.
Application Process
Please submit a Cover Letter (no more than one page which explains why you are interested in the role and how your experience satisfies the Person Specification) along with your CV no later than 00.59 hours on 19th May 2024. Early applications are advised as we reserve the right to conclude the process before the closing date if a suitable candidate is identified.
ENN are committed to equality and diversity throughout our organisation and further expects all employees to comply with its codes of conduct, safeguarding policies and high ethical and professional standards.
Emergency Nutrition Network works to reduce undernutrition globally.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.