ERNESTO F. BETANCOURT

EDUCATION

LANGUAGES

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

Senior Advisor, Public Sector Reform and Cuba Transition
DevTech Systems, Inc., Washington, DC 1998-2000

Undertook survey of IDB Modernization of the State Program, which involved evaluation of all projecs undertaken by the Bank under that program for a total of more than ten billion dollars.

Member, Research Team University of Florida, USAID

Undertook public opinion polling among more than a thousand recent arrivals from Cuba.

Vice-President, Public Sector Reform

International Development and Finance (IDF), Washington, DC 1990-1998

Served as Senior Institutional Specialist in a team which undertook IDB evaluation of impact of institutional factor on implementation of 32 Bank-financed projects.

Advisor to Guatemala's Social Investment Fund management on reorganization of the agency to upgrade its capabilities to meet requirements of new World Bank loan.

Team leader of evaluation group of UNDP's Management Development Program activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Institutional advisor in WB/IDB/KfW identification mission for loan to expand role of Salvadorean Social Investment Fund.

Member of World Bank supervision mission of Modernization of the State (MOSTA) loan in Ecuador.

Member of Coopers & Lybrand steering committee for Nicaragua's institutional reform WB project.

Designed draft proposal on Macroinstitutional Policy and guidelines for the Institutional Strengthening Agreements to guide reform of public administration in Ecuador under World Bank MOSTA loan.

Proposed strategy for integration of the various management systems in the Bolivian public reform program leading to the introduction of performance-based management.

Drafted proposal for creation of Servicio Gerencial y Técnico del Estado in Nicaragua, a technical and managerial elite corps.

Member of World Bank Civil Service Reform Preparatory Mission to Bolivia.

Advisor on supervision of budget and finance of WB MOSTA loan to Ecuador.

Member of World Bank mission to Honduras to make an institutional evaluation of the Honduran Social Investment Fund

Member of appraisal mission and negotiating team for TAL to Ecuador for modernization of the state. Advisor for implementation of the MDP program in El Salvador, as Non-resident Advisor, and for updating the MDP program in Nicaragua.

Consultant to World Bank on review of experience of agency on governance issues during the last two years. Mission Leader for MDP Needs Assessment missions to El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador, and for the NaTCAP Mission to Jamaica.

Advisor on design of organization of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

Participated as institutional analyst in UNDP project for reorganization of Bank for Central American Integration (BCIE) and in the UNDP's Management Development Programme (MDP) Mission on Nicaragua's public administration.

Designed workshop on the strategy for introduction of institutional innovations which has been used in MDP missions.

Director - Radio Martí, Washington, DC 1984-1990

VOA program broadcasting to Cuba. Organized research department; was promoted to direct all operations. Organized, set editorial policy, and directed all operations for one language service which broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Supervised staff of 160. Station became number one in audience in Cuba.

Consultant 1976-1984
Advised institutional development for tourism and export and industrial promotion throughout Latin America and the Caribbean for Organization of American States, World Bank, USAID, and Inter-American Development Bank. Developed methodology for appraisal of institutional capability of macro-organizational networks required for development. Did field work in Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. His work for Jamaica in designing a new Performance Budget System under World Bank Technical Assistance Loan 2106-JM, was mentioned as "an example of consulting which client and Bank respondents praised as embodying many of the positive qualities enumerated" in the Interim Review on that loan.

Organization of American States (OAS) 1960-1976
Was seconded by OAS to the Corporacion Venezolana de Fomento to coordinate a consulting team from Arthur D. Little with the national management team in the creation of CVF-TEC, a fully owned subsidiary whose mission was to identify, generate, promote, and implement industrial projects. Was Director of Organization Development and Training: designed and organized the department. Director of Finance and Budget: directed design and installation of new budget system for all OAS funds and the conversion to a consolidated computerized financial management system. Coordinator of the Department of Economic Affairs: responsible for overall administration of Department, political analyses for CIAP annual country reviews and oversight of OAS Development Administration Program. Coined the phrase "Alliance for Progress" for John F. Kennedy's campaign speech in 1960 announcing the program.

Director - Exchange Stabilization Fund
National Bank of Cuba, Havana, Cuba 1959
Managing Director of the Bank of Foreign Trade of Cuba.

Governor for Cuba at the International Monetary Fund.

Advisor to Fidel Castro during his first visit to the United States. Broke with regime in 1959 when Communist takeover became evident.

LECTURING

Lectured at the Inter-American Defense College, the US Air Force Special Operations School and the University of West Florida (1990-1993).

Designed workshop on strategy for introduction of institutional innovations (1992).

Lecturer at the Washington Public Affairs Center of the University of Southern California on institutional analysis (1976).

Lecturer at Georgetown University in graduate course on revolutionary analysis (1969). Lecturer at University of Pittsburgh on foreign aid and revolutionary analysis at AID mid-career training workshops (1965-1968).

Undertook several lecture tours on behalf of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs for their local branches on Cuba, Latin America and the Alliance for Progress (1965-1967).

PUBLICATIONS

Contributor to several of the Proceedings of the annual conferences of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), published under the series of volumes Cuba in Transition.

Author, De la Patria de uno a la Patria de Todos, Como encarar el reto de la reforma institucional durante la transiticion en Cuba, book published by Editorial Universal in 2000, outlines the steps modern governance will require from the transition government in Cuba in order to meet not only the demands of democratic rule and a market economy, but also access to international financing for the reconstruction. Provides an annotated agenda for discussion groups inside Cuba and overseas.

Contributor, Measuring Cuban Public Opinion, September 1999, University of Florida report financed by a contract with USAID. (Wrote Rationale and Results sections)

Article, Society, July-August 1998 issue on the 1992 missile crisis.

Author, Cuba: Bringing the Background into the Foreground, a booklet analyzing recent public opinion dynamics in Cuba published by Freedom House in 1997.

Author, "A New Approach to Develop Institutional Infrastructure," a monograph published in the summer 1997 issue of Studies in Comparative International Development.

Chapter commenting Horowitz' works on Cuba in the Transaction book The Democratic Imagination: Dialogues on the Work of Irving Louis Horowitz, 1994.

Article in Society, in 1994 issue on Castro's rise to power and his legacy.

Contributor to World Bank booklet on Governance, The World Bank's Experience, May 1994.

Author, Revolutionary Strategy: A Handbook for Practitioners, New Brunswick, N.J., Transaction Books, 1991.

Editor, Capacitación en Administración de Proyectos: Problemas de Implementación de Proyectos, published by the Economic Development Institute, World Bank, 1983. For the above volume, wrote paper on "Appraisal of Institutional Capability for Development."

Chapter on "Policies of Exporting the Revolution" for Revolutionary Change in Cuba, Pittsburgh, 1974.

Has written articles for The Washington Post, The New York Times, El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald, as well as many technical reports for the OAS, the United Nations, Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank.