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Managing Projects In Rwanda
Elizabeth is a freelance writer and project manager living and working in London. She runs The Otobos Group, a project communications consultancy specializing in project management.
So you wanna save the world? Micromanaging isn’t an option when tackling the health of a nation, but it’s a myth that traditional project management approaches don’t ‘travel well’ from the business sector to international development initiatives. Interpersonal skills and team leadership are critical, even when the deliverables are running water and electricty.
This is the fourth and final article in a series on career advancement and opportunities in the project management profession.
Karen Schmidt became a reporter to save the world. After ten years observing the world through the lens of journalism she decided she needed a change of career. “I wanted to advocate for what I thought was important,” she says. Schmidt had a long term interest in health and science, so she retrained, earning a Master of Public Health at Yale University, and launched herself into the world of public health projects.
In November 2003 Schmidt landed in Rwanda, working alongside the local population to improve how projects were managed as part of an international development program. “I provided technical assistance to the project management unit, helping them to plan, organize meetings and put together funding proposals,” she says. “I gave them the business sense of rolling out a project.”
Based in Kigali, Schmidt worked for the Access …
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