Oxfam Is Hiring a Safeguarding Advisor to Strengthen Protection Across Africa|Deadline: 7 September 2026
Oxfam International is inviting applications for an important regional leadership position: Safeguarding Advisor – Oxfam in Africa (OiA). This is a unique opportunity for an experienced safeguarding professional to help strengthen systems that protect staff, partners, and communities from sexual exploitation, abuse, harassment, and child abuse across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The position is particularly relevant for professionals with experience in safeguarding, protection, humanitarian or development programming, gender equality, case management, investigations, and organisational capacity building.
About the Role
The Safeguarding Advisor will provide expert leadership in implementing Oxfam’s safeguarding strategy across Africa.
The successful candidate will work across Oxfam country offices and provide technical advice, capacity building, and strategic support to ensure consistent safeguarding standards throughout the region.
The position sits within the People and Culture Team but operates with a high level of professional independence. The advisor will work closely with the One Africa Director, OiA Leadership Team, Country Directors, and safeguarding colleagues across different countries.
This makes the role both technical and strategic, requiring someone who can advise senior leaders while also working directly on safeguarding systems and practices.
Key Responsibilities
One of the central responsibilities will be developing and implementing safeguarding prevention and response strategies.
The advisor will help country offices and partners strengthen their ability to prevent and respond to safeguarding concerns. This includes building organisational capacity, developing appropriate systems, and ensuring safeguarding principles are integrated into programmes and operations.
The role will also involve designing community feedback and complaints mechanisms, ensuring that communities have safe and accessible ways to raise concerns.
An important part of this work will be establishing appropriate referral pathways so that people who report safeguarding concerns can access the necessary support and services.
The advisor will also provide technical guidance on survivor-centred case management, investigations, and allegation management.
Given the sensitive nature of safeguarding work, the successful candidate must be able to handle confidential information responsibly and demonstrate strong ethical judgement.
Working Across Africa
This is a continental position, meaning the advisor will support safeguarding work across multiple African country contexts.
The role will involve working with diverse teams, partners, communities, and organisational structures. Understanding the different legal, cultural, operational, and regulatory environments across Africa will therefore be important.
The advisor will also matrix-manage country-level Safeguarding Focal Points and work collaboratively with colleagues throughout Oxfam’s network.
As a member of Oxfam’s Global Safeguarding Network, the successful candidate will also contribute to wider organisational safeguarding priorities.
The position includes external representation, including participation in inter-agency safeguarding forums such as the IASC Accountability to Affected Populations/Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Task Team.
The Ideal Candidate
Oxfam is looking for a safeguarding professional with demonstrated experience preventing and responding to sexual exploitation, abuse, harassment, and child abuse.
Candidates should ideally have experience working within an international NGO, UN organisation, civil society organisation, or comparable environment.
Practical experience is particularly important. The successful candidate should understand safeguarding case management, survivor-centred approaches, investigations, allegation management, community feedback systems, referral pathways, confidentiality, and ethical information management.
Knowledge of safeguarding legislation and regulatory environments across African countries is also highly desirable.
The position requires someone who can move comfortably between strategic leadership and practical technical work.
Communication and Leadership Skills
Safeguarding work frequently involves difficult conversations and sensitive situations, so strong communication and facilitation skills will be essential.
The advisor will need to communicate effectively with senior leaders, country teams, partners, and community stakeholders.
Oxfam is seeking someone who can build trust quickly, communicate complex safeguarding concepts clearly, and encourage organisations to adopt stronger safeguarding practices.
Resilience, self-awareness, discretion, integrity, organisation, and adaptability are also highlighted as important qualities.
The role may involve balancing competing priorities and responding to complex or sensitive cases, making sound judgement particularly important.
Language Requirement
One of the most important eligibility requirements is fluency in both English and French, in written and spoken communication.
This means that candidates who speak only English would generally not meet the stated essential language requirement.
Experience in gender-transformative programming, organisational culture development, and inter-agency PSEA representation would be an additional advantage.
Oxfam is particularly interested in candidates who share its feminist principles and commitment to survivor-centred safeguarding.
Location and Work Eligibility
The position offers considerable geographical flexibility within Africa.
Candidates can be based in any country where Oxfam has an office or presence, provided an employment contract can be established directly or through a hosting affiliate.
However, there is an important restriction for international applicants.
Oxfam International states that it cannot guarantee a work permit and cannot support relocation for this position. Candidates must already have, and be able to retain, the legal right to work in the country where they are based.
This makes the opportunity potentially attractive to professionals already living and legally authorised to work in an African country where Oxfam operates.
For someone seeking relocation sponsorship from outside Africa, however, this vacancy would not be suitable.
Contract and Salary
The position is a one-year fixed-term contract and is classified as Internal Job Grade C1, National.
The salary will be determined according to the applicable Oxfam pay range.
The position is full-time, with Oxfam highlighting flexible working arrangements as part of its approach to building its future Secretariat.
Application Deadline
The closing date is 7 September 2026 at 23:59 GMT/BST/EAT.
Applicants should submit:
- An up-to-date CV
- A cover letter
- Evidence demonstrating their suitability against the essential criteria in the job profile
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, with Oxfam indicating that this will usually happen within approximately two weeks of the closing date.
Why This Opportunity Stands Out
The Safeguarding Advisor position offers more than a conventional safeguarding role. It provides an opportunity to influence safeguarding systems across an entire regional platform.
The successful candidate will contribute to strengthening organisational culture, improving accountability, developing country-level capacity, supporting survivor-centred responses, and ensuring that communities and staff are safer across Oxfam’s African operations.
It would be particularly well suited to an experienced safeguarding professional who combines technical expertise, regional understanding, leadership ability, strong communication skills, and a commitment to feminist and survivor-centred approaches.
For qualified professionals already authorised to work in an African country where Oxfam has a presence, this could be a significant opportunity to take on a regional role with an internationally recognised humanitarian and development organisation.
Deadline: 7 September 2026
Contract: 1-year fixed term
Location: Flexible within the Africa region
Key requirement: Fluency in English and French and existing legal right to work in the country of residence.
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