Institutional Framework
According to the Costa Rican system, the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN) is the government agency responsible – through its administrative subdivisions –for population and development issues, as well as for the implementation and follow-up of the Montevideo Consensus. Specifically, the Undersecretariat of Population is the Unit of forward-looking analysis and public policy through which MIDEPLAN is in charge of population and development issues, as well as the administration of the permanent inter-institutional coordination mechanism called the Organizational Structure of the Montevideo Consensus. All the topics addressed by the Montevideo Consensus are subject to implementation and coordination by MIDEPLAN with different actions; however, the most direct form of focus is the advice to the competent bodies of the different areas in the development and implementation of public policies. Nine other entities participate in the coordination mechanism; their work highlights an inter-institutional synergy to address the different topics of the Consensus, under a complementary approach. Another special feature of the Costa Rican model is the participation of two civil society organizations that focus on the defense of women's rights, the LGBTIQA+ community and gender issues in the coordination mechanism on an equal footing with State bodies.
Participation
The Costa Rican population and development institutional framework, which monitors the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus in the country, has, in addition to the government bodies, two organizations that are not part of the state structure and participate as full members: the Citizens' Association (ACCEDER) and the Association for Sustainable Development, LGTBI Costa Rica. However, the country does not have a mechanism that guarantees a broader representation of civil society in the aforementioned institutional framework, a situation that is expected to change as a result of the change of government administration, promoted by the current presidency of the nation, in which an executive decree is being developed that will provide a regulation for the governance model of the Montevideo Consensus in Costa Rica and is expected to render explicit the mechanisms of participation of the institutions and organizations of the country.
The information on Institutionality comes from the regional survey for the update of the Virtual Platform for the follow-up of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, implemented by the technical secretariat in 2023.