Job Details

Law and Justice Advisor

Job Reference no. C&P712
Region England
Location Oxford
Division Campaigns & Policy
Department Programme Policy
Position Type Fixed Term
Job Type Experienced
Closing date for applications: (UK Time) 28 October 2012

Job Profile

Law and Justice Advisor
Oxford

2 year contract - (second year pending full funding)
Starts from £36,110 p.a. (gross) dependent on skills and experience

OXFAM PURPOSE: To work with others to overcome poverty and suffering

TEAM PURPOSE: The purpose of the Programme Policy Team (PPT) is to link learning of global trends with internal programme experience to inform and influence Programme direction and support programme quality and Oxfam's wider agenda of change. Within the Programme Policy Team, the Social Policy and Governance Team works on the thematic areas of basic social services, governance and gender, to: provide direct support to country programmes, including leading global programmes; drive programme-focused learning, ensuring that new thinking informs Oxfam's work; and contribute to and influence debates in the development sector and lead the development of new strategies on behalf Oxfam.

Social Policy & Governance team within PPT focuses on supporting global programmes and individual country programmes in the strategy development and programme quality on Essential Services, Gender and Governance.

JOB PURPOSE: To develop a strategy and support programme and campaigns teams to strengthen and/or initiate access to justice work and deepen their understanding on the links between law programme, policy and governance - with a strong focus on women's empowerment though access to legal services

REPORTING LINES: Postholder reports to Stephanie de Chassy, Head of Social Policy and Governance Team. Strong links with company secretary and legal team as well as with Oxfam Novib. This post will matrix manage East Africa Regional Legal Officer, who reports to Head of Pan Africa Team.

BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY: None

Dimensions

Required to develop long-term vision and strategic planning to achieve significant impact. ·
Management tasks and problems are diverse and complex and involve a significant degree of risk (financial, security, brand).
Representing Oxfam corporately and managing and influencing significant and high profile external relationships
Produce, assimilate, analyse and use programme information from varied and diverse sources to provide in-depth analysis in the specific programme unit or policy area
Decision-making is strategic and operational with a high degree of judgement based on specific problem solving experience and a range of external and internal factors
Leading role in the formulation, organisation and delivery of high-level lobby, and advocacy as part of the programme and actively participate in lobbying and advocacy.
Lead the alignment of programmes with Oxfam corporate priority campaigns and ensure effective harmonisation of planning and management with Oxfam International.
Plan and implement fundraising plans and ensure proper reporting and accountability to multilateral and bilateral donors
Advises senior management on technical issues.
Problem-solving complexity includes people management and strategic management related to team specialism.
Planning includes short, medium and long-term considerations. Together with the rest of the departmental management team, decisions are made which may affect Oxfam's programme several years in the future.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Coordinate Oxfam's justice and law programme and policy/campaign work
Develop legal strategy for programme and policy/campaign work
Support Oxfam's gender justice work
Develop and support work on access to information as part of Oxfam International's Strategic Plan
Leverage our pro bono and legal networks to support capacity development of lawyers and paralegals in developing countries for programme related work
Develop opportunities for Oxfam to support and leverage support for public interest litigation
Work with funding teams process to obtain funding and support for Oxfam's legal programme work
Support Oxfam's advocacy and campaigning goals through legal support for international advocacy and law reform in Oxfam's advocacy areas

Please Note: this remit excludes business support to Oxfam's own operations, which is provided by the Company Secretary and Legal Team

Key Responsibilities

Objective 1 - Mapping Oxfam's justice and law work

To build a clear picture of Oxfam affiliates' recent and current access to justice projects and programmes, and the links between partner organisations, to inform the future development of this work. To the extent practical, evaluate what has had most impact, and the kind of projects that communities have found most empowering. These projects will include gender, land, intellectual property and access to information.
To map the work of other affiliates and international organisations working on similar projects.

Objective 2 - Strategy development
To lead/assist the development of a legal 'One Programme' approach strategy for Oxfam, and to coordinate this approach with the work of other potential allies like ActionAid (on access to information). This will include support for the GROW campaign on water and land rights, identifying opportunities for public interest litigation, and may include work with legal volunteers to produce guidelines to guide programme managers on management of risk to communities, partners and Oxfam. The strategy will address access to justice in relation both to governments and private sector, formal and informal institutions. This will involve liaison with and support to the regional governance change leads, the Research Team, and other relevant teams.

Objective 3 - Gender Justice

Identify how a legal approach and use of legal volunteers can support Raising Her Voice (global programme on political empowerment of women in 17 countries), in particular work on the African Women's Protocol and women's property rights. This will spell out 4 components: Advocacy, implementation, communication, litigation. In particular, test the possibilities of litigation to enforce women's rights, eg on the principle of non-discrimination under human rights law.

Objective 4 - Access to Information

Network with allies (like Article 19, Transparency International, International Budget Partnership) on right to information, to identify scope for Oxfam partners to use legal avenues to promote access to information; support programme staff in advocacy in relation to law reform, in promoting communication and rights to information and in promoting the take up and use of information rights through legal and quasi-legal mechanisms by partners and communities, especially in marginalised communities. At international level support the embedding of participation, transparency and accountability in institutional processes, such as intergovernmental forums (as for example through ATT Legal in supporting civil society participation in the Rules of Procedure for the UN Arms Trade Treaty Conference, or supporting the implementation of Prior and Informed Consent'(FPIC)law.

Objective 5 - Capacity Building and training of lawyers

Develop opportunities for Oxfam to leverage its contacts with the legal community, in particular the pro bono community, for them to enhance the capacity of lawyers and paralegals in countries where access to justice is rendered more difficult by a relative paucity of access to legal services. This will include working with others on basic research into the asymmetry of legal resources, particularly in those countries with Oxfam programmes but few legal resources, through networking with other groups working on legal capacity building

Objective 6 - Public Interest Litigation

Advise programme staff on approaches to public interest litigation. Scope out options for human rights dimensions, eg further work on land rights and gender rights, and OxfamNovib's right to food project. Other work on social and economic rights may include Essential Services, such as right to health and right to education, and promotion of the Maastricht Principles on extra-territorial obligations under economic and social rights in the ETO Consortium.
Support programme and campaign staff in liaising with pro bono supporters, eg the international law firm working with our partners on land rights in Tanzania
Work with Richard Lord QC (Editor of our Climate Liability book) and international group of experts to identify and scope priorities for a website to support public interest litigation, focused on practical guidance and enforcement through strategic litigation or through the use of paralegals to empower people living in poverty to secure their own rights. Connect with PPCT and Research team to explore options for further publications like our Climate Liability Book, but on GROW and other programme and policy areas (eg Land and Water litigation).

Objective 7 - Funding and support
Work with the various funding teams (mostly PFD) to prepare Concept Notes/funding bids for legal strategy, (a) to obtain funds to support legal partners and (b) to establish a scheme, whether for Fellows or otherwise, that will enable the recruitment of Programme Officers in Oxfam affiliates and countries and/or our partners. Network with potential funders for access to justice work, including foundations and governmental donors. Collaborate with allies on potential joint bids. Help coordinate the approaches of all affiliates seeking funding for access to justice work.

Objective 8 - Influence international legal framework

Work with Public Policy team to influence international laws that disadvantage developing countries: enable equitable participation in international policy making on issues of gender, women's rights, social and economic rights, intellectual property and trade, climate change.
Leverage our networks in pro bono and academic legal communities. For example, in relation to international investment arbitration this could build on Oxfam International's 2011 Sleeping Lions paper.
Work with a volunteer and team of academics and practitioners to map international investment arbitrations in Africa, work with arbitrators on human rights dimensions of arbitration, and influence commercial arbitrators to be more aware of poverty and human rights issues.
Support legal capacity building in international law: continue to network with allies in Legal Response Initiative and Arms Trade Treaty work

Objective 9 - Management
Matrix manage East Africa Regional Legal Officer, who reports to Head of Pan Africa Team

Development Objective

Comprehensive inductions with programme and campaign staff in Oxford and key countries (esp. Sub Sahara Africa), and other Oxfam (Novib, France, America) Understanding of Oxfam International policy positions

Skills and Competence

Strong legal academic and professional background (E)
Proven experience of legal programme work at a country, regional or global level (E)
Knowledge of the role of access to justice in addressing poverty and inequality (E)
Understanding of emerging trends and challenges facing access to justice/strategic litigation work and potential solutions to the challenges (E)
Demonstrated experience of integrating gender into legal work (E)
Understanding of Governance issues and how linkages between power holders accountability with the delivery of fair justice (D)
Experience in working with communities and civil society organisations in developing countries especially in supporting their linking of on-the-ground issues to national-level change (E)
Experience of influencing national policy making in a developing country in access to justice and or gender justice work (E)
Ability to work with corporate sector actors and policy makers (D)
Proven ability to communicate easily and readily verbally and in written form, fast delivery of a substantial workload with completed, specific planned deliverables, and to write policy documents, grant proposals, etc. (E)
Proven ability to enhance the work of others through a variety of learning techniques (e.g., coaching, facilitation, etc). (E)
Team player, self-motivated, ability to work with little supervision. (E)
Ability to travel for up to 10 weeks a year. (E)
Fluent English (E) with the ability to speak Spanish, French or Portuguese (D)