By: Dennis Price, Impact Alpha
Puerto Rico has a window in which to turn disaster recovery into economic revival.
“We didn’t choose it, but this is our time,” declares Eduardo Carrera, founder of Platform for Social Impact, which aims to steer capital to Puerto Rico’s social infrastructure. In front of hundreds of social innovators and financial engineers in downtown San Juan earlier this month, Carrera unveiled a clock that is counting down to a 10-year deadline for progress.
The urgency is a response to the frustration around the Caribbean island’s lingering economic woes, years after 2017’s Hurricane Maria and other disasters. Some $85 billion in US federal aid and recovery funds remain on the sidelines, even as nearly 60% of children live in poverty.