HomeMy WebLinkAboutRD.2 - Hamakua Institute1
June 30th, 2024
Mr. Douglass Adams
Director of Research and Development
County of Hawai’i
25 Aupuni St, Suite 1301
Hilo, HI 96720
Dear Mr. Adams,
RE: SOQ for Economic Development Intermediary
Please find the attached Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) for your review. We are submitting this SOQ
in consideration for a professional services contract to support the following categories of services in
Hawai'i County:
RD.1 - Community Planning (Community and Economic Development, Community Engagement, Culture
and Indigenous Data Science, Strategic Planning, Sustainability Systems)
RD.2 – Community Planning (Grant Writer)
RD.4 – Economist
RD.11 – Instructional Systems (Design of Training, Facilitation, and Evaluation Program)
RD.12 – Operation Research
RD.14 – Statistics (Statistician)
RD.15 – Workforce Research and Analysis
We believe that our experience makes us well-suited to assist the county in facilitating community
economic and agricultural development solutions. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with
the County Research & Development Department.
Sincerely,
Dennis Flemming
Executive Director
Email: dennis@hamakuainstitute.org
P.O. Box 60 Ninole, HI 96773
Ph: +1 (808) 937 7372
Fax: +1 (808) 443 0401
EIN: 47-3114047
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Statement of Qualifications
Professional Services Contract for Economic Development Intermediary Organization
Introduction
Established in 2016, the Hāmākua Institute
supports social and economic development
through collective action. Although based in
Hawai’i, the Institute works internationally in
regions facing poverty and conflict to bring
together communities, businesses, and
governments to create healthier, more
prosperous societies. Fundamental to the
Institute’s work is the belief that regardless
of country or region, there’s a multitude of
people and organizations doing important
and interesting development work. What is
often lacking is a way to bring those efforts
together in more effective, mutually
complementary ways. The Institute focuses
on resolving this problem by serving as a
convener, connecting the dots to improve
one of the most critical, yet often
overlooked, parts of the development process
– how people work together collectively.
Details of the Hāmākua Institute
Phone Contact: (808) 937-7372
E-mail contact: dennis@hamakuainstitute.org
Physical Address of Office: 34-4370 Pali Nana Rd, Ninole, 96773
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 60 Ninole, HI 96773
Age of Firm: The Hāmākua Institute was incorporated in December 2014, but started
operations in 2016.
Aver. Number of Employees: It has averaged five employees over the last five years.
Staff Education, Training, and Qualifications
The Hāmākua Institute has four consultants available to support economic development in Hawai’i
County. These include Dennis Flemming, the Hāmākua Institute’s Executive Director, Andrea Kuch, its
Collective action process the Hāmākua Institute uses to build a shared
understanding of problems, jointly align stakeholder efforts, and facilitate
collaboration to resolve them.
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Development Manager, Katrina Zavalney, who serves as a Facilitation Coordinator, and a development
economist, David Elliott. Their education, qualifications, and experience are summarized below:
• Dennis Flemming holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Finance
from the University of Florida, 1985. He also holds a Master of Science in Sustainable
Development from the University of London, 2009. He has spent 14 years working as a small
business development and training advisor, 16 years as an international development project
manager and 5 years as a consultant and facilitator focused on rural community and economic
development.
• Andrea Kuch holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Communications from the
University of San Diego, 2010, and completed a year-long executive business education program
from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2022. Andrea has spent more than a decade
supporting international development projects within the private sector, holding various
positions in corporate social investment and project management. Since joining the institute,
she has served as a consultant and facilitator focused on rural community and economic
development.
• Katrina Zavalney is an experienced strategic planning and organization development consultant
with a Master's degree in Organization Development. She has 25 years of experience in
community development, sustainability, event management, and nonprofit work. Katrina is
dedicated to creating sustainable livelihoods globally and has been a leader in the sustainability
movement. She has worked with Disney, where she wrote key environmental policies.
• David Elliott is a development economist with more than two decades of experience analyzing,
leading, and supporting economic and market systems development projects globally. For more
than 16 years, he served as Executive Director and Chairman of the Springfield Centre, the
birthplace of market systems development.
The Hāmākua Institute also works in partnership with several organizations and individuals around the
world to bring in specialized expertise and experience when needed. Some of its partners relevant skill
areas include facilitation, mediation, dispute settlement, conflict resolution, social research and value
chain analysis.
Experience and Recent Projects
Since its establishment in 2016, the Institute has focused its efforts on the analysis, design, and
evaluation of rural economic development programs in Hawai’i and internationally in Africa, Latin
America, and the South Pacific. The Institute uses a process to support multi-stakeholder efforts to
assess, plan, and coordinate development efforts in collaboration with a diverse collection of key
stakeholders.
Through the process, the Hāmākua Institute not only identifies social and economic needs, but focuses
on building stakeholders’ shared understanding of problems. The initial assessment helps ensure
different viewpoints from community members, business professionals, elected leaders, and those
responsible for implementing policy are considered when analyzing development challenges and
proposing solutions. This participatory approach, which focuses on greater inclusivity, can be helpful in
generating greater agreement on what the problems are and possible solutions.
The Hāmākua Institute has used, and is currently applying, these participatory and collective processes
in a number of projects including the following:
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1. As part of a contract from Kamehameha Schools, the Hāmākua Institute completed value chain
analysis for three key agricultural sectors on Hawai’i Island – staple food crops, export crops,
and agribusiness services. The project aimed to increase a shared understanding of systemic
constraints holding back the island’s agricultural economy and identify potential pilot solutions.
2. Under a contract with the County of Hawai’i Department of Research & Development, the
Institute assisted in completing a Hawai’i Island Clusters of Opportunity (HICO) analysis to
identify the island’s significant economic clusters based on job growth over the past decade.
Activities included cleaning and analyzing more than 100,000 data points from the Your
Economy Time Series (YTS) database, producing data visualizations, and holding a leadership
summit with business leaders to identify action plans that could support the island’s economic
growth.
3. Under a new Research to Grassroots (RGR) grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education (SARE) Council, the Institute is implementing a program to introduce
and adapt new models for overcoming labor barriers to improve the economic viability of
Hawai’i Island’s small farms.
4. As part of USDA funding under a grant from the Western SARE Administrative Council, the
Hāmākua Institute implemented a program to train individuals from the local agricultural
community as market systems facilitators who can better understand, analyze, and solve
problems for improving the growth and efficiency of Hawaii’s small farms.
5. Under a Phase 1 grant from the Economic Development Agency for the Build Back Better
Regional Challenge (BBBRC), the Hāmākua Institute developed the capacity of the Hawaii Island
Agriculture Partnership (HIAP) as a mechanism for facilitating the public-private collaboration
necessary to achieve impactful economic growth in the island’s agriculture and food sector.
Under the grant, the Institute is finalizing the incorporation of HIAP as a 501c6 membership-
based organization, formalizing its governance and decision-making processes, and developing
agreement templates members can use to make it easier for sharing farm assets, equipment,
and services.
6. Under a contract with the County of Hawai’i Department of Research & Development, the
Hāmākua Institute assisted in the preparation and stakeholder engagement process for a multi-
stakeholder emergency feeding plan for the County. The project was completed and formed the
basis for broad stakeholder alignment and awareness in preparation for future crises.
7. Under a grant from Kamehameha Schools and the Hawai’i Community Foundation in 2020, the
Hāmākua Institute coordinated and facilitated a multi-stakeholder collective assessment of the
agriculture and food system on Hawai’i Island. This project was completed and used as the basis
for securing grant funding for agriculture and food system development strategies.
8. Under a grant from the Hawai’i P-20 Partnerships for Education within the University of Hawai’i,
the Hāmākua Institute serves as the coordinators, conveners and fiscal agents for the Hawai’i
Island Agriculture Partnership, developing the partnership mechanisms and establishing a
website. The currently funded work is for the 2022 calendar year and focuses on generating
collective action for agricultural development through public-private partnership.
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9. Under a contract from Kamehameha Schools, the Hāmākua Institute carried out a Forestry Value
Chain study in partnership with GDS Development Solutions. The study examined the economic
viability of value-added processing options for forestry products on harvested on Hawai’i Island.
The study was completed and presented to Kamehameha Schools in 2019.
10. Under a contract from the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, the Hāmākua Institute
facilitated a participatory stakeholder evaluation of a mother-child health program in Colombia,
South America. The evaluation brought together health workers, government officials and
representatives from remote indigenous communities to collectively evaluate the program and
recommend improvements. The evaluation was completed in April, 2018.
References
The following clients can be contacted for references associated with the above work carried out in
recent years:
For Project 1, 3, 4 and 7:
Leanne Kami
Strategy Consultant
Kamehameha Schools
Sustainable Industries Development Division
Hilo, Hawai’i
Ph: (808) 982-0839
e-mail: leokamot@ksbe.edu
For Projects 2 and 5,6:
Sarah Freeman
Food Systems Coordinator
County of Hawai’i
Dept of Research & Development
Hilo, Hawai’i
Ph: (808) 982-0839
e-mail: sarah.freeman@hawaiicounty.gov
For Project 8:
Jean Isip Schneider
Associate Director, Sector Partnerships
University of Hawai'I
(808) 956-7278
e-mail: isip@hawaii.edu
For Project 9:
Marissa Harman
Director, Asset Management, Hawaiʻi Island
Community Engagement & Resources
Kamehameha Schools
Phone: (808) 982-0833
Email: maharman@ksbe.edu
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For Project 10:
Dr. Nadeem Anwar
Regional Manager, Social Performance
Corporate Affairs
Chevron Africa and Latin America
Houston, Texas
E-mail: naat@chevron.com
Phone: (925) 683-5972