ILLUSTRATIVE WORK EXPERIENCES

*Greater Caribbean Energy & Environment Foundation, Vice-president:   1993 to Present

*Consultant: World Bank, UNEP, UNESCO, Greater Caribbean Energy & Environment foundation, 1987 – Present

*Schwengel Environment Co., Director of Marketing, 1991-1993

*Miami Dade Community College, Director of Administration, 1988 – 1991

*Small Business Administration, 1988

*Partnership -for Productivity, President, 1976 – 1987 (Micro-credit & small business development)

*American Bicentennial Commission, Director of Congressional Citizen Participation             Program, 1976

*Data Use and Access Laboratories, Director of Information Systems, 1975 to 1976

*Data Use and Access Laboratories, Director of Development, 1974 to 1975

*Smithsonian Institution, Director of International Folk Festival, 1973 to 1974

*Peace Corps, Director Jamaica, 1971 to 1972

*Peace Corps, Director Malawi, 1968 to 1971

*Peace Corps, Program 0fficer, 1967 to 1968

*St. Andrews College, Associate Professor and Writer-in-residence,   1966 to 1967

*LOOK Magazine, Public Relations Manager, 1964 to 1966

*Happy Patch Farms, Farm Manager, 1963 to 1964

*University of Texas Press, Sales Manager, 1962 to 1963

*Bemidji State University, Instructor, 1960 to 1961

*Various Construction jobs while in college

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Cross Cultural Studies, University of Iowa, Free University of Berlin, University of Salamanca, Mexico City College, 1963

M.A. and B.A., Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Baylor University, 1952, 1959

PUBLICATIONS:

Seven books of poetry, many poems published in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, and numerous other literary magazines. United Nations Award for Literature, Peace Corps Writers Award for Literature. Recent books: San Miguel de Allende, African Stiltdancer, and Songs of Africa translated into Bulgarian. Other book and magazine publications are in the works.

HEALTH STATUS:

Excellent; one hour of tennis plus one hour of calisthenics every morning extends an athletic history that includes a Golden Gloves championship, football acclaim as the only sixty minute player for the Western Area Command Army football team, and many other ongoing sports and wellness activities.                                                                                 
ANDREW H. OERKE

Mr. Oerke is a senior management specialist in economic and environmental issues. He has concentrated on program design and implementation in microfinance, microbusiness, and environmental projects in more than 60 countries.

Typical of the projects undertaken by Mr.  Oerke:

I.                  Microfinance and Micro- and Small business Development

According to Dr. Jonathan Murdoch of NYU, in 1973 a policy decision against the feasibility of microfinance was made at the highest levels. In 1976, Mr. Oerke took over as the director of Partnership for Productivity just as the peer pressure methodology for microfinance in Kakamega, Kenya was falling apart. After convincing very reluctant USAID programmers that microfinance could be successful and should be a part of a small enterprise program, Mr. Oerke proceeded to create a new and broader microfinance methodology. The methodology was a systemic approach reaching from small farm production through the necessary enabling enterprises and the supply chain to marketing. Based on an integrated and reliable system, repayment rates shot up to 95%. This methodology was replicated in more than 50 countries and donors began to back microfinance program in a big way. Accion, Grameen, Michaela Walsh’s Women’s World Banking and a few others in the late 70’s and 80’s also proned that microfinance was a viable option. Microfinance began to grow exponentially and is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Mr. Oerke is presently creating the design for the next generation of microfinance based on a generative rather than a sustainability model. Mr. Oerke:

1.    Expanded and refined original micro-finance system pioneered by David Scull and Partnership for Productivity in Kenya in the 1960’s.

2.     Pioneered the systems approach (farm to market linkages) in small business development in Burkina Faso in the 1970’s and replicated, designed or evaluated microfinance and small business programs in 34 African countries and several dozen other developing countries.

3.     Under the USAID, PISCES contract, supervised first world-wide survey of microfinance practices in the 1970’s.

4.     Organized numerous conferences and training programs in microfinance and small business development.

5.     Organized one of the first conferences devoted to sustainability for economic development programs in the 1980’s.

6.     Incorporated local economic development institutions specializing in microfinance and micro-business assistance in Malawi, Burkina Faso, Togo, Botswana, Kenya, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Swaziland, Egypt, Lebanon, Thailand, the Philippines, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Dominica, Haiti, Brooklyn and Miami among the Haitian Diaspora, and upgraded small business capabilities in many other countries.

II.                Public Health Programs

Mr. Oerke was Peace Corps Director for the first Public Health and Wellness Program in Africa. This program eliminated TB, Leprosy and small pox from Malawi, and trained the entire Ministry of Health personnel down to the village medical and health assistance level in sanitation, clean water and well construction, latrine placement and maintenance, nutrition, simple diagnosis and referral and a host of other preventative procedures. Building on that, later, as Director of Administration for Miami-Dade community College with Kellogg Foundation support and the input of Dr. Ken Pelletier, he established one of the first academic Wellness Centers in the USA. At present, he and ex-Peace Corps doctors, who worked on the same projects, have established a Public health and Wellness Clinic in Gressier District in Haiti in response to the disaster there, following his organization first sending dozens of emergency medical doctors to treat the disaster, often in open fields without electricity, anesthesia or antibiotics.

III.   Environmental Projects and Assessments

When Biscayne Bay was a desert, Applied Marine and later Greater                 Caribbean Energy & Environment Foundation, (GCEEF) both under the direction of Dr. Anitra Thorhaug, who invented seagrass planting, planted 247 acres of Thalassia and brought Biscayne Bay back to life. It is now a four-billion-a-year tourism and fishing powerhouse. As CEO of GCEEF, Mr. Oerke supervised many other coastal restoration projects and assessments, in Jamaica, the Philippines, Kenya, Haiti, Thailand, multiple sites in Florida and the restoration of 75 acres of seagrass after a Fina Oil accident in the Laguna Madre. GCEEF also made a major breakthrough after the Mother of All Oil Spills in the Arabian Gulf. They demonstrated, against prevailing scientific (satellite) opinion, massive amounts of oil had destroyed the coastline and shattered the corals as far down as Oman. Previously, satellite pictures had only picked up on the oil sheen as far north as Abu Dhabi in Saudi Arabia. Nor had they identified the counter-current that carried oil to the other sides of the Gulf in Iran. These observations were disputed at the time. Two years later, a NOAH expeditionary voyage validated the GCEEF data. Mr. Oerke and GCEEF have also been successful at persuading host governments to cite power plants in environmentally safe areas rather than above cities and on top if fault zones. This clearly involves a combination of scientific and political skills.

IV.     Social and Economic Impact assessments

          The basis of Mr. Oerke’s microfinance/micro-enterprise model rested on an economic and sociocultural analysis of the culture and the specific area being impacted. Every intervention implemented rested on an analysis of cultural patterns and probabilities, subsistence and quasi-monetized infrastructure, supply streams, enabling enterprises, competitive advantages and market realities. Mr. Oerke  has done this in so many countries and cultural and tribal areas it is too iterative to mention them. They are itemized on the first page of the CV.

Specific Project Experience

1. Designed, managed and implemented microfinance small business and agriculture development programs in more than sixty countries. The work included economic analysis of natural and human resources related to market potential, technology, environmental, infrastructure and credit needs, and supervision of more than 300 professionals in the organization as well as thousands of clients.

2. Established on-going local development institutions in Burkina Faso, Togo Botswana, Jamaica, Haiti, Philippines, Malawi, Kenya, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Swaziland, Egypt, Lebanon, Thailand, the Philippines, Costa Rica, Dominica, Brooklyn and Miami among the Haitian Diaspora, and upgraded small business capabilities in dozens of other countries. This work included negotiations with national governments, the development of local boards of directors and local staffs, and fundraising for the projects. The work also included administration and frequent evaluations.

3. Analysis and program design for IBM for black entrepreneurship and job creation in South Africa. This project focused on analysis of the South African economy, environment, and job potential for Blacks. The fifty million plus ibm project also involved creating a coalition of South African Black organizations; South African NGO's, universities, parastatals, corporations, and American Sullivan companies to create a national movement for Black economic power in apartheid South Africa.

4. Designed and supervised microfinance and small business programs in over sixty countries. The design included analysis of capital available for business, the productivity potential of an area or region, natural resources, the rate of return on investments, the cost of capital, culturally acceptable credit mechanisms, the transportation and infrastructure needs, and the marketability of given products.

5. Designed and implemented environmentally sensitive agriculture, fisheries, and agro-forestry projects in Togo, Burkina Faso, Jamaica, Kenya, Haiti, Philippines, Liberia, and Mauritania. The projects included: changing the farm pattern from upland rice and slash and burn practices to swamp rice; fishing, irrigation and water management; seed production, seed banking and distribution; the export of vegetables; the development of packing houses, poultry, livestock and ruminant production; agro-forestry and mixed cropping; marketing and appropriate technical assistance; and the organization of purchasing and marketing cooperatives.

6. Designed and managed computerized information systems for the Office of Education, The National Science Foundation, and CARINET. The design included an analysis of all educational data, questionnaires, reliability, access, storage, delivery and usability of the data, in the United States educational system, grade school through post-graduate, academic through administrative and financial data, and resulted in the creation of EDSTAT for the office of Education. The management of Clearing House and Laboratory for Census Data for the National Science Foundation involved a massive re-orientation of census data based on an analysis of use patterns and practical dissemination techniques. CARINET, established in the late 70’s and 80’s, created a commercial internet system and low-cost development information network based on easy access and communication rather than expensive, comprehensive data banks and storage, and expensive and slow telex communication.

7. Determined possible strategies for rapid economic development in the Caribbean utilizing the Caribbean Initiative as a springboard. The study included an analysis of resource potential matched with marketability, and strategies for development, especially for women producers culminating in a marketing conference and showcase in Miami.

8. Organized and designed a comprehensive evaluation system for environmental and economic activities, rural and urban, at the small and micro level.  The project included organizing conferences of voluntary and development organizations to participate in the design and implementation of metrics for sustainable systems.

9. Successfully negotiated a new, more technically oriented Peace Corps Country Agreement with the President of Malawi after the Malawi Congress Party had expelled Peace Corps from the country. This involved complex and high-level negotiations and a complete overhaul of Peace Corps programming in the country.      

10. Served as Vice president of PAID (Private Agencies in International Development), and organized with the World Bank the World Bank/NGO Task Force on Microfinance and Small Business Development and served as its first chairman.

11. Identified and organized U.S. Congress persons and senators in setting priorities for America’s next hundred years for the American Bicentennial Commission. This task included developing and testing participatory techniques for community groups and resulted in a four-day computer-1inked conference of these groups with the U.S. Congress coinciding with the Fourth of July Bicentennial Celebration.

12. Analyzed the U.S. African-American, Latin, Asian, Caribbean and European cultural practices for the Smithsonian. The work included identification of ethnic groups and expressions of their cross-cultural values in their crafts and folk art. The work culminated in the design and implementation for the Bicentennial of the first Smithsonian International Folk Festival, the largest festival of its type to date.

13. Assessed the environmental impact to the seagrasses, mangroves and fisheries in the Arabian Gulf following the Gulf War and the catastrophic oil spill experienced in the Arabian Gulf as a result of the war. This effort occurred under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Program and the International Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational and Scientific commission.

14. Assisted in the design of seagrass restoration programs for FAO in the Philippines and the UNDP in Indonesia.

15. Assisted in the organization and implementation of a coastal rehabilitation conference involving the Government, industry, fishermen organizations, women's organizations and voluntary agencies to plan a restoration program restoring for the Philippine coastline.

16.  Assisted in the design and operation of seagrass transplanting projects for Applied Marine Ecological Services and the Greater Caribbean Energy and Environment Foundation in Biscayne Bay, the Laguna Madre, Jamaica, the Philippines, Kenya, Thailand, and in numerous locations in the USA.

17. Designed and integrated environmental management and disaster preparedness systems for the Government of Jamaica and trained the workers in how to implement.

18. Assessed with co-author 152 World Bank projects in Mexico for environmental impacts. These projects included power plants, tourism developments, agriculture(including and infrastructure.

19. Assessed the environmental, economic and social impacts of old and new power plants located in Mombasa for the Government of Kenya and the World Bank.

20. Assessed the environmental, economic and social impacts of an oil rig and power plant in Bioko,      Equatorial Guinea.

21. Consulted with the United Nations on a conference on environmental issues for voluntary agencies concerning Coastal Restoration and Fisheries issues, culminating in a global Miami Conference.

22. Developed a fisheries project in Jamaica for the Government of Jamaica involving local fishermen, Peace Corps volunteers and environmental groups.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE: AFRICA

* Designed, evaluated, supervised and monitored a wide variety of development programs in many African countries specializing in microfinance and micro-business assistance but also including work in the areas of education, agriculture, health, marketing and refugee assistance in 34 African countries.

* Lived in Africa full-time four years as a Peace Corps Director, and traveled on work assignments in Africa for another twenty some years.

* Designed or supervised environmentally-sensitive agriculture and fisheries projects in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Togo, Botswana, Liberia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mauritania, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Cameroon, Chad, Senegal, Sierra Leone.

* One of the first to develop methodologies to implement small business, agriculture and micro-credit programs in Botswana, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda Togo, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and many other countries as early as 1976, expanding on the work of David Scull in Kenya in the 60’s.

* Negotiated numerous agreements and contracts with Africa African Heads of State or Cabinet Ministers for government registration of Peace Corps, private companies and dozens of individual projects.

* Organized in Washington D.C. for USAID, one of the first NGO conferences (1985) dedicated to the subject of Sustainability.

* Facilitated with UN and USAID for seed corn to be delivered to farmers during the great 1984 famine in Ethiopia to circumvent the Hatch Act.

* Organized NGO, World Bank, United Nations, and USAID Conference in Lome during major African Food Crisis for improved resource management and rehabilitation, enhanced production and distribution of food, and refugee rehabilitation under the sponsorship of the Government of Togo.

*Developed local economic development institutions specializing in microfinance and micro-business assistance in Malawi, Burkina Faso, Togo, Botswana, Kenya, Liberia, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Egypt, Lebanon, Thailand, the Philippines, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Dominica, Haiti, Brooklyn and Miami among the Haitian Diaspora, and upgraded microfinance and small business capabilities in dozens of other countries.

* Trained and supervised more than two hundred teachers in secondary schools, teachers colleges and the University of Malawi, and 22 doctors and fifty some Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa’s first preventative medicine and public health program.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE: ASIA AND PACIFIC

  *Designed, evaluated, supervised and monitored a wide variety of development programs in many countries in Asia and the South Pacific, in microfinance and small business, agriculture, the environment, education, and public health.

*Designed and organized MIDAS (Micro Industries Development Assistance) to provide development assistance through a consortium of microfinance and micro-enterprise agencies in Bangladesh.

*Supervised assistance to various Thai agencies in the areas of small business and micro-credit programs and designs.

*Assisted in the design of seagrass restoration programs for The FAO in the Philippines and the UNDP Program in Indonesia.

*Designed and supervised small business and agro-forestry assistance programs for various organizations in the Philippines. Consulted with Micronesia and Marshall Islands Governments regarding microfinance and micro-enterprise development programs.

* Designed or organized small business, microfinance and marketing conferences for the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Nepal.

*Advised the Agricultural Development Bank, AID and NGO's in Nepal on appropriate technology, environment, and small business programs.

*Supervised small business and microfinance assessment surveys in India, Pakistan and Burma, Africa and Latin America under a USAID contract.

ANDREW OERKE

RESUME SUPPLEMENT:  LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

* Initiated, managed, or up-graded small business and microfinance institutions in Haiti, Jamaica, Dominica, Ecuador, and Costa Rica.

* Designed or assessed small business assistance potential for US AID Missions in Jamaica, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Eastern Caribbean countries. 

* Designed and supervised a relief and reconstruction program in Dominica after a hurricane disaster.

* Developed agricultural production and marketing programs for Haiti, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

* Created the original design for privatization for the private sector program for Haitian Chamber of Commerce.

* Supervised study for Rockefeller Brothers Fund of Strategy –for-Private Sector-Development in the Caribbean Basin.

* Organized and developed legislation in the state of Florida for          a counter-trade vehicle to improve trade with Latin America and the Caribbean.

* Supervised two conferences for women of the Caribbean, focusing on the marketing of export products and culminating in market showcases at the Hyatt Hotel in Miami.