IEDP 2022
PUERTO RICO
WHERE DID WE GO?
For the 2021-2022 academic year, the International Economic Development Program (IEDP) focused on Puerto Rico. This was unusual, since IEDP typically takes students outside the boundaries of the United States. Puerto Rico's unique relationship with the mainland, however, provided an opportunity to understand the distinctive economic development challenges and opportunities that arise from the island's territorial status. The home of the native Taíno people, and a colony of Spain and the United States, Puerto Rico has a vibrant history and unique culture. It was imperative that we met with stakeholders outside the major metropolitan areas to develop a holistic understanding of developmental issues—especially post Hurricane Maria.
The cohort chose to set up base in the southern port of Ponce, the second largest town on the island. Ponce’s proximity to grassroots organizations outside the capital city of San Juan made it ideal for diverse developmental perspectives. Two full days were spent in San Juan to meet with government officials, private organizations, and other policy stakeholders. We also spent a day in the historic town of Loiza—a municipality that was originally established by escaped slaves of the colonial era—to understand the experience of Afro-Puerto Ricans within Puerto Rican society. And, of course, our trip included some time for relaxation on the beaches of Cabo Rojo.
WHAT DID WE STUDY?
The 2022 cohort was divided into groups to study four main policy areas—Environmental Policy, Fiscal Policy, Poverty and Inequality, and Disaster Relief and Preparedness.
Each policy area also served as a lens to understand the ongoing issues of Puerto Rico’s relationship with the United States.
At Casa Pueblo with Alexis Massol González
Tour of the Capitol Building in San Juan
En route to the bioluminescent bays of La Parguera
Above: University of Puerto Rico
Below: Stakeholder meeting with ICF
WHO DID WE MEET?
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
NWR
The National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System is an independent nonprofit organization focused on protecting and preserving animals and plants. In 1974, NWR was established in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, and further expanded to other parts of the island, including San Juan. The organization works closely with Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. Most of Puerto Rico’s NWR focuses on protecting the wildlife throughout the island, including forests, grasslands, and native fauna such as hawksbill turtles and yellow-shouldered blackbird.
ISER Caribe
ISER Caribe is a non-profit located in Puerto Rico that focuses on working directly with local communities through a trans-disciplinary approach by conducting participatory research and engagement. ISER studies the interactions and dialectic relations between the environment and humans to manage natural systems. ISER does this through several community-based projects, including the Ponce Water Quality Monitoring Project, Community-Based Conservation Campaigns, and Seagrass Conservation and Coastal Vegetation Restoration Project. Through these projects, ISER promotes healthy and sustainable livelihoods through community involvement and economic viability oriented towards environmental preservation.
Para la Naturaleza
Para la Naturaleza is a 40-year old local nonprofit focused on community outreach and ecosystem conservation. Para la Naturaleza has many locations throughout the island, including San Juan and Ponce. One of its many goals is to ensure a safe and healthy future for Puerto Ricans by protecting the land, water, and cities. The organization mainly focuses on increasing protected natural areas through local and community engagement. In addition, Para la Naturaleza leads various scientific learning opportunities through voluntary work focused on protecting and preserving Puerto Rico’s land.
DISASTER RELIEF AND PREPAREDNESS
ICF
ICF is a private strategy consulting firm based throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017, ICF worked with federal and local governments to provide disaster relief to communities. ICF’s main recovery project, Recovery, Reconstruction, and Resilience (COR3), works with Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities, agencies, and non-profit organizations to obtain federal funding from FEMA. As FEMA approves these projects, ICF then allocates these funds to rebuild and support communities.
Website
PRoTechos
PRoTechos is a nonprofit organization that was created in response to Hurricane Maria and the immediate need to rebuild roofs of Puerto Rican households. Their mission is to strengthen underserved communities through roof reconstruction and related vocational training. As of 2022, PRoTechos has built 100 roofs, assisted 16 communities, and trained over 45 apprentices in rebuilding skills.
Brigada Solidaria del Oeste
Brigada Solidaria del Oeste (The Solidarity Brigade of the West) is made up of artists, activists, tradesmen, and other individuals from various organizations and social struggles that joined forces and assumed the role of "first responders" after Hurricane Maria. Their combined efforts and networks secured resources to support the reconstruction of homes, the revitalization of community gardens and green spaces, and the installation of solar panels in communities on the western region of the islands. Since then, they have introduced hands-on workshops that cover a range of topics, such as promoting sustainable agriculture.
U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the main federal agencies responsible for disaster recovery and resiliency efforts in Puerto Rico. Laura Rivera-Carrion, a Ford School alumna, is the Coordinating Officer for Disaster Recovery at HUD. Rivera-Carrion manages the $20 billion Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-DR) portfolio in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and she works with both local and federal agencies to provide technical assistance in the implementation of disaster recovery programs.
POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
Department of Family
Puerto Rico’s Department of Family’s vision is to help the people of Puerto Rico obtain a better quality of life and transform the demand for social and economic justice into reality. The Department of Family works to empower Puerto Rican families so that they can achieve self-sufficiency and integrate into socioeconomic development in a productive manner. The department is made up of the following programmatic and operational components: Secretariat, Family Socioeconomic Development Administration (ADSEF), Administration of Families and Children (ADFAN), Administration for the Care and Comprehensive Development of Children (ACUDEN), and Child Support Administration (ASUME).
Website
Ponce Neighborhood Housing Society
The Ponce Neighborhood Housing Services has 5 key programs. They are: Housing Counseling, Socio-Economic Community Development, Economic Development for Entrepreneurs, Loans, and Construction. The Housing Counseling Department's mission is to educate families and individuals through first-time homebuyer counseling, financial literacy, foreclosure prevention. Their goal is to help families with moderate and low resources so that each Puerto Rican family can enjoy a decent and safe environment.
Centros Sor Isolina Ferré
Centros Sor Isolina is a faith-based non-profit organization. Their mission is to promote the integral development of the individual with justice, dignity, respect, and love, with a focus on faith. They serve a generational range with multiple social, educational, economic, and spiritual needs. Centros Sor Isolina uses intercession, educational and technological training, and community self-management as institutional strategies.
FISCAL POLICY
Senator Maria de Lourdes Santiago
Senator Maria de Lourdes Santiago is the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP). Her background itself is unique in the scope of Puerto Rican politics—she hails from Adjuntas, the interior of Puerto Rico, which is different in comparison to the majority of politicians who hail from major cities and coastal regions. In her early days of political activism, she participated in several civil disobedience campaigns and served jail time. Senator Santiago, a champion for independence, represents how deeply pervasive the issue of statehood is in Puerto Rican politics.
Website
Economic Development Bank of Puerto Rico (BDE)
The Economic Development Bank of Puerto Rico (BDE) was established in 1985 to provide access to capital and financial products for small and medium businesses in Puerto Rico.
Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DEDC)
The Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DEDC) is the leading entity in the executive branch of the Government of Puerto Rico that establishes the vision and public policy of economic development and serves as coordinator and integrator of the strategies and initiatives of its affiliated entities.
Gustavo Diaz Skoff
Gustavo Diaz Skoff is the president of the NGO Young Entrepreneurs of Puerto Rico, Founder of the first co-living space in Puerto Rico, Act 20 & Act 22 researcher, and ex head of intelligence during Hurricane Maria at the Foundation For Puerto Rico Island Relief Team. He and his team assessed all 78 Municipalities post Maria and aided in the distribution of crucial data to 180+ entities weeks after the event.
20/22 Act Society
The 20/22 Act Society is a membership-based organization composed of individuals who have relocated to Puerto Rico from various parts of the world due to the benefits provided under Puerto Rico Acts 20 and 22 of 2012. Their ultimate purpose is to serve as the voice that encourages the significant impacts that the 20/22 community can have in Puerto Rico’s nonprofit sector. The 20/22 Act Foundation Inc. was established to support and work directly with local charities, regarding but not limited to animal welfare, children, education, elderly care, and homeless areas.
ENTIRE COHORT
Casa Pueblo
Casa Pueblo is a community-based organization that promotes, through voluntary participation of individuals and groups, protection of the environment. Its mission is to explore, enjoy, and protect wild places in Puerto Rico; build more resilient systems of energy and food on the island; practice and promote the responsible use of the land's ecosystems and resources; educate and enlist others to protect, and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
Website
Hacienda Bueno Vista
Hacienda Buena Vista is a natural protected area that includes one of the most important coffee and minor fruit estates. During the time that it functioned as a hacienda, Buena Vista served as the setting for a unique relationship between land, water, and slavery. Today, the heart of what was the hacienda contains a carefully restored historic site with structures that are more than a century old and a unique hydraulic turbine. Rehabilitated and in operation, it is still driven by the waters of the Cañas River, which still serves as an engine for several machines that date back to the heydays of the hacienda.
Website
Estudio de Arte Samuel Lind
Born and raised in Loiza––Puerto Rico’s only predominantly Black town, set up by escaped slaves during the colonial era—Samuel Lind’s art has chronicled the Black experience in Puerto Rico and pursues artistic expressions dedicated to asserting Black identity in the Puerto Rican vocabulary. From sculpture and watercolors to lithographs and screen printing, Lind’s wide range of mediums have contributed to raising awareness of the Afro-Boricuan experience in museums and galleries across the world.
Casa Ayala
Casa Ayala is home to a family of artists keeping Black Puerto Rican arts alive. They organize demonstrations of the Bomba dance form and workshops for traditional Vejigante mask-making—both essential expressions of Blackness in Puerto Rico.
Casa Afro
Casa Afro is a space dedicated to tracing and chronicling the history of blackness in Puerto Rico. The institution in Loiza is actively involved in studying and learning ancestral cultural practices that are kept alive in the memories and traditions of the Afro-descendant communities in Piñones, Loíza, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and the African diaspora, from Alaska to Patagonia. Casa Afro is also deeply involved in the collective production of Afrocentric critical thinking leading to new models of education that reflect aesthetics, narratives, and symbols that honoring the African identity.