Head of Quality and Compliance at Oxfam

Requisition ID: 10841
Internal Job Grade: B2- National
Contract type: Fixed Term
Job Family: Programme & Audit
Reporting to: Country Director
Staff reporting to this post: MELSA Officers, Compliance Officer

Job Purpose

• To increase Oxfam’s programme quality and impact in Nigeria with compliance with set rules and regulations by working closely with country and regional teams to improve program quality - providing leadership, coordination and strategic support on program design, quality, monitoring, evaluation, learning and compliance.
• The Head of Quality and Compliance will assume a managerial  and technical role in establishing, implementing, and  maintaining effective and appropriate Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, quality and compliance management systems for Oxfam’s programmes; responsible for ensuring that Oxfam in Nigeria activities and partnerships are within stipulated rules, guidelines, regulations and ethical expectations; and other duties which include monitoring business operations and reporting infractions to the Country Director, reviewing policies and projects for risks, maintaining and updating the country programme risk matrix/register; and researching for new initiatives and innovations.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Strategic Management and thought Leadership:

• Work under the guidance of the Country Director to shape and embed the country programme’s vision on quality and compliance.
• Understand and ensure that Oxfam in Nigeria’s projects, activities and partnerships comply with the donor(s) policies and procedures.
• Lead in the roll out of Oxfam’s program quality frameworks such as CAMSA
• Contribute to the development and implementation of country strategy and develop and coordinate operational plans to achieve quality and compliance.
• Work with the Head of Programme & Influencing to ensure quality, coherence and impact of the Nigeria program through monitoring and evaluation (advisory and oversight role) of the impact of the various components of the program.
• Provide a critically analysis of program strategies and approaches and facilitate appropriate changes to ensure program outcomes are sustainable.
• Support program teams make complex technical information accessible and usable by non-specialist within/out the defined program area.
• Maintain links with regional and global program development, quality and monitoring initiatives
• Under the leadership of the Country Director and in collaboration with the Head of Program & Influencing, and Head of Finance and Administration facilitate periodic programme review/audit process to determine their compliance with set rules and guidelines.
• Escalate any and all cases of non-compliance to the Country Director for guidance and direction, within 48hrs of detection.

Program Quality Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Learning and Social Accountability:

• Manage MELSA staff who provide technical support to Oxfam programme teams on implementing MELSA in all programmes, within the established Oxfam standards
• Provide technical advice to strategic and operational program reviews. Ensures high quality programme planning, monitoring and evaluation including field visits, periodic reviews, communication of progress and results and knowledge management
• Ensure evidence-based programming, feeding MELSA data analysis to the Program staff to ensure learning influences programme design and strategy
• Coordinate and produce key baselines, midlines, endlines, evaluations, surveys meeting the expected standards, in close collaboration with MELSA Officers and program teams
• Facilitate programme/project planning processes, particularly on logic of intervention (Develops logical frameworks and MELSA plans), and contributes to ensuring adherence to Oxfam’s programme quality standards.
• Provide specific research designs, key questions to be addressed, and methodological approaches to be used to be used to establish baseline survey, mid-term review and final evaluation and ex post assessment.
• Establish a robust knowledge management and learning (KM&L) system on how KM&L will take place between levels of the system (e.g., between field sites and national offices) and how KM&L takes place in a context of partnering/working with others
• Develop and implement M&E System, M&E Plan, Reporting Indicators, and M&E Tools; used for capturing and documenting data and relevant information on project activities, beneficiaries, outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
• Support the conduct of periodic supportive supervision and Data Quality Audits’ visits to state teams, partners, and communities.

Capacity Building for Partner and Oxfam Staff:

• Design and lead the delivery of proactive strategic program quality capacity building plan, designing and implementing capacity building initiatives and mobilizing resources for training, coaching and mentoring, as appropriate
• Contributes to managing technical performance of all MEALSA staff including objective setting, personal development plans, performance appraisal, training, mentoring and coaching.
• Support programme teams in establishing knowledge creation and sharing and learning loops, through for instance production of case studies, presentation of key results for monitoring and evaluation activities, and facilitation of learning and capitalization workshops.

Oxfam and Partner Management:

• Develop and maintain effective partner grants and reports monitoring system, ensures adherence to Oxfam and donors’ policies and procedures on partner management.
• Establish a robust stakeholders’ complaints and response mechanism; ensure that accountability and community feedback mechanisms are implemented and utilized according to agreed principles
• Interact with Oxfam communities of practice working on programme quality to represent the issues emerging from the programme, to remain up to date with internal good practice and to solicit capacity building and other support when necessary.

Compliance Management:

• Maintain Oxfam’s ethical integrity by ensuring strict implementation of Oxfam policies and regulations.
• Oversee adherence and compliance with all set rules, guidelines and policies including but not limited  to Oxfam policies, fundraising, business development, donor and grant management guidelines, and reporting guidelines
• Design and monitor control systems to prevent violations of internal or donor(s) policies.
• Design and implement compliance plans, guiding and educating the management and staff on compliance matters, updating knowledge on regulatory changes, and responding in case of investigations.
• Monitoring larger regulatory developments that may affect the operation of Oxfam, and training and educating employees on any newrules and policies.
• Review, evaluate and oversee organizations procedures and control systems in order to deal with or prevent violations of legal guidelines and internal policies, evaluate the efficiency of controls and continuously improve them, and revise procedures, reports, etc on a periodic basis in order to identify hidden risks or non-conformity issues.
• Escalate any and all cases of non-compliance to the Country Director for guidance and direction, within 48hrs of detection.

Educational, Experience & Competence Essential

• Master's Degree or equivalent in Statistics, Research Methodology, Social Sciences, or other relevant qualification, and possess strong analytical abilities.
• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in the areas of research, assessment, monitoring, learning, and capacity development/transfer or a combined professional qualification with at least 8 years “hands-on” working experience in designing learning, and monitoring systems; 3 years at strategic level in Oxfam's (or similar organisation’s) program work, including field experience and/or with institutional donors.
• Experience with major donors EU, FCDO, BMGF, GAC, OFDA, ECHO etc
• Strong demonstrated understanding of risk management in procurement and sub granting.
• Good understanding of quality compliance management obligations (including statutory obligations).
• Knowledge of capacity building, learning and development activities and how to create a learning and sharing environment with a strong knowledge management basis and experience of delivering capacity building programmes for national level organisations.
• High levels of strategic and people management skills, able to support and mentor teams in their professional and personal growth and use a variety of strategies and approaches to motivate teams.
• Excellent personal communication skills, in written and verbal English, with high impact influencing and persuasive skills an able to represent Oxfam to donors and external institutions.
• Excellent knowledge of the political economy in Nigeria, politically astute, with a good understanding of key external organisations, how they operate and make decisions, and the country development context.
• Good research and analytical skills and ability to write quality reports and make recommendations for improvements.
• Well-developed conceptual, critical, thinking with the ability to convey complex information in a straightforward, interesting way, and influencing this to a wider audience.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using a computerized information management system (Ms. Word, Excel, Accounting/Statistical analysis software etc.).
• Capacities to implement M&E and Learning in terms of planning skills for necessary conditions and capacities - staff skills and numbers, (human capacities, incentives for implementing MEL&SA and organizational structures)
• Involvement in projects utilizing grass-roots approaches and addressing issues of power, diversity, exclusion, participation, and gender.
• Good ability to demonstrate qualitative data within a MELSA system
• Tech savvy with a strong level of IT Expertise and use of mobile survey/field data collection tools (odk, KoBoToolbox, etc).
• Excellent in various statistical packages and software’s including SPSS, Stata, Excel, Access etc.
• Commitment to Oxfam’s overall aims and policies and experience of promoting women’s rights and the interests of marginalized people in all aspects of Oxfam’s work.
• Understanding of and commitment to Oxfam’s One Program Approach (linking humanitarian, development & influencing work).

Key Behavioural Competencies:

• Decisiveness: We are comfortable to make transparent decisions and to adapt decision making modes to the context and needs.
• Influencing: We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organisation We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.
• Mutual Accountability: We can explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values.  We are ready to be held to account for what we do and how we behave, as we are also holding others to account in a consistent manner.
• Agility, Complexity, and Ambiguity: We scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways.
• Systems Thinking: We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organizational decisions and actions.
• Strategic Thinking and Judgment: We use judgment, weighing risk against the imperative to act. We make decisions consistent with organizational strategies and value.