7.4 Budget development process and team roles

Team roles: The following diagram shows the recommended team roles, supervision and coordination lines within the budget development process.

The Emergency Response Team is responsible for providing project implementation assumptions and oversight to the Budget Development team. Key information to be provided is:

  • estimated duration of the intervention
  • geographical areas
  • required staff structure (skills, number of staff, locations)
  • number of offices supporting the effort
  • procurement requirements
  • project activity plans
  • intervention funded by single or multiple donor(s)
  • donor proposal/budget formats.

The Budget Development team consists of staff from programme and finance. It is given the task of compiling the initial draft of the budget using CARE’s Standard Chart of Accounts, processing revisions and obtaining approval from the Emergency Response Team before submitting the final budget to the donor. This team will seek input from the Procurement, Human Resources and Logistics teams to complete the budget.

To efficiently address the different cost components, this team will branch into two smaller teams-programme and finance-with the following responsibilities:

  • Programme: The programme team, with the support of the Procurement, Logistics and HR departments, will prepare a budget that outlines the project direct costs. These direct costs shall be calculated according to the design of the project in line with the budget assumptions that are provided by the Emergency Response Team. In practice, the programme team is also responsible for writing the project proposal document and therefore has a complete overview of the project.
  • Finance: The finance team, with the support of the Procurement, Logistics and HR departments, will prepare a budget that outlines the project support cost structure according to the assumptions provided by the Emergency Response Team.