Lat: 9.9721
·
Lng: -84.1890
Human Development Index
0.833
UNDP HDR 2023
Political Rights Rating
1 / 7
Freedom House 2024
Civil Liberties Rating
1 / 7
Freedom House 2024
CIVICUS Monitor
Narrowed
CIVICUS 2024
ND-GAIN Score
54.50
ND-GAIN 2024
Civil Society Participation
0.879
V-Dem CSPI
Gender Inequality Index
0.217
UNDP GII 2023
Multidimensional Poverty
0.002
OPHI MPI 2023
ODA to NGOs / CSOs
$12.46M
OECD DAC 2023
Total ODA Received
$154.60M
OECD DAC 2023
Costa Rica is a middle-income democratic country in Central America known for its strong civil society engagement. It acts as both a provider and a recipient of development cooperation, focusing on technical assistance through South-South and triangular cooperation. The International Cooperation Policy for 2024-2035 (POLCID-CR) is the current policy framework guiding Costa Rica’s development cooperation and implementation of the PNDIP, together with the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The public interest declaration for the SDGs which was in place since 2017 was eliminated in April 2025.
The civil society in Costa Rica includes organisations dedicated to environmental protection, indigenous rights, and gender equality. The country is viewed as a model of democracy and political stability in Central America, with laws that protect freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression. However, recent concerns reflected in the ‘Narrowed’ CIVICUS rating highlight restrictions on protest rights and tensions from austerity measures.
Since becoming an OECD member in 2021, Costa Rica has been recognized for its achievements in democratic stability and reversing deforestation, although its GDP per capita remains less than half the OECD average
Costa Rica is one of the case study sites for the broader Geoformations Project. It stands out among the countries in this study as a middle-income country. The case study is led by Ivonne Lopez Arce and focuses on Costa Rica’s Pacific region to investigate how shifting funding conditions influence the governance space of NGOs engaged in climate adaptation. Employing assemblage thinking as the methodological approach, this qualitative study uses Li’s practices of assemblage as a framework for analysis. These practices include (a) forging alignments, (b) rendering technical, (c) authorising knowledge, (d) reassembling and (e) managing failures. The study examines the governance space of adaptation aid in the area, and the governance impacts of funding reduction