Projects fail quietly when everybody assumes somebody else is doing a task. Knowing the roles on a project, and writing down who does what, prevents that. It is also how you understand where an entry level job fits.
Common roles
Titles differ between organisations, but these are the ones you will see most often in NGO and business adverts:
- Project assistant or programme assistant. Handles day to day administration: arranging meetings and trainings, keeping attendance sheets and receipts, preparing payment requests, filing, and drafting parts of reports. Often the first job in this field.
- Project officer. Runs activities in the field, works with communities, collects data and writes activity reports.
- Project coordinator or manager. Owns the plan, budget and risks, leads the team and reports to the organisation and the donor.
- Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) officer. Tracks indicators, designs data collection and checks whether the project is achieving its results.
- Finance officer. Approves payments, keeps accounts and makes sure spending follows the budget and the donor's rules.
- Donor or funder. Provides money and sets reporting rules.
- Community partners. Chiefs, assembly members, water committees, head teachers, women's groups: the people whose cooperation the project depends on.