Perhaps one of the more unique aspects of hiring in the international development sector is the process of being staffed on a proposal.
Donors like the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.K. Department for International Development and the European Commission typically fund projects through an open procurement process. They will release a request for proposal — or a request for applications in the case of grants and cooperative agreements — and invite development organizations to submit a bid. Based on predetermined selection criteria, they will choose a winner who will receive the funding and implement the project.
One of the key components of a USAID proposal — and a significant factor when it comes to scoring the proposal to determine the winner — is the people who will actually work on the project.