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    Map of Costa Rica
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    QUICK FACTS: COSTA RICA


    Size: 51,100 square kilometers
    Population: 4,133,884
    Average annual income: $4,980USD
    Languages: Spanish (official), English
    Population below poverty line: 18 percent
    Life expectancy: 77 years
    Religions: Roman Catholic, 76 percent; Evangelical; Jehovah's Witnesses; and others
    Ethnic groups: white (including mestizo), 94 percent; African origin; Amerindian; Chinese; and others

    (Source: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook 2008; The World Bank 2006)


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    Costa Rica

    A Carter Center seminar in April 2000 brought together for the first time Costa Rica's government, private sector, and civil society to agree on civil society's participation in the monitoring process.


    Building Hope
     
    Famous for its lush tropical forests and relative stability, Costa Rica is a beautiful and fairly peaceful nation. However, the development challenges it faces as a Latin American country are complicated by widespread government corruption. The Carter Center has been working with Costa Rican officials since 1998 to build a stronger, healthier, and more transparent government.


    Waging Peace
    Building a Model for Transparency

    Costa Rica is one of three countries where The Carter Center has worked to reduce corruption and promote transparency in the Americas.

    Since the Center's Americas Program began its Transparency Project in 1998, Costa Rica President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez has instituted several reforms:

    1. Established the Concertación Nacional, a forum through which the government has shaped a reform agenda
    2.     Created and filled the post of a transparency adviser
    3.     Recommended creating a special prosecutor's office and jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute ethics cases
    4.     Issued a decree against displaying the president's portrait in public offices and
    5.     Issued a decree prohibiting the use or display of public officials' names in public works built with public funds.

    Specifically, the Concertación Nacional recommended:

    1. Reforming the penal code
    2.     Establishing a code of conduct for public servants
    3.     Instituting a financial administration and public budget law
    4.     Abolishing the executive pardon and
    5.     Eliminating public officials' immunity from prosecution.

    To promote the role of civil society in monitoring public contracting and to increase awareness of anti-corruption practices, the program held a seminar in April 2000 in Costa Rica. Participants hailed the seminar, "Civil Society Monitoring of Public Contracts and Procurement," as the first time all three sectors – government, the private sector, and civil society - came together and agreed on civil society's participation in the monitoring process.
     
    Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales
    Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, expenditures on expensive weapons systems divert scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. They also compel neighbors to spend more on defense and, by doing so, generate international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among the signatories were Costa Rica President José María Figueres Olsen and former Presidents Rodrigo Carazo and Oscar Arias Sánchez.


    Learn more about the Carter
    Center's Americas Program >>