Costa Rica

Brief description

The Joint Programme is geared towards generating structural changes in the way the public sector plans, finances and accounts for results regarding the national priorities that are aligned to the 2030 Agenda and the principle of leaving no one behind. Clearly, these changes will not depend entirely on the JP and will require a longer timeframe, however, there are technical capacity gaps in the public sector that the programme can address in a manner that accelerates progress towards those structural changes. With the implementaton, the country's SDG financing architecture will be able to mobilize more financial resources in the medium term and increase the ability to produce the required results for the 2030 Agenda with available resources. 

Approach

Through a 2 pillar approach, the programme intends to strengthen SDG financing architecture at the national, sectoral and ecosystem levels. It will develop an integrated financing strategy to mobilize and align multiple sources of capital and planning processes with national development priorities and the 2030 Agenda, while focusing specifically on the education sector to improve its public spending efficiency through the implementation of a gender-responsive, socially inclusive and results-based budget and framework. At the ecosystem level, the JP will convene key stakeholders in the private, social and financial domains to identify concrete opportunities for strengthened cross-sectoral collaboration in joint financing and operational mechanisms, complemented by capacity building and dialogue strengthening processes.

The programme brief description

During the last three decades, per capita income in Costa Rica has grown significantly and the country has made significant investments in social development. In order to continue these advances, Costa Rica needs to address the inequality that women and girls face. This Joint Programme will thus support the government’s vision to strengthen the social protection system and to accelerate SDG achievement through concrete changes in institutional arrangements and local initiatives. Focusing on leaving no one behind, it includes a local approach and an institutional one. Targeting women and their families in three of the most excluded coastal and border cantons, three local models will be implemented to reduce women’s unemployment, increase productivity and boost poverty reduction at local level, with clear indicators and a monitoring system to ensure results and facilitate replication in other cantons. Interventions will be grounded on strengthening local participatory approaches for local development to ensure tailor-made, environmentally sustainable solutions with local ownership through Local Innovative Gender-Sensitive Laboratories.

Approach

This programme considers an intersectional gender, intercultural and geographic approach in order to leave no one behind. The programme will be using at local level a people-centered design thinking approach, so that interventions are designed around and focused on women and their families, their rights and their context, in alliance with the National Laboratory of Public Innovation as a space for gender sensitive co-creation.

Target groups: Women, youth, indigenous peoples, rural workers, persons of African decent.