The EUROsociAL+ Programme, the Costa Rican Ministry of National Planning and the EU Delegation in the country have organised the second country-dialogue table for the launch of joint results and the design of the roadmap of actions underway for 2021
As a priority, Costa Rica and the European Union have established support for public policies that improve levels of social cohesion and reduce inequality gaps in the country. To this end, the EUROsociAL+ Programme is the EU cooperation instrument that, in coordination with the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, accompanies these reform processes, which are based on the National Development and Public Investment Plan, with a clear focus on the achievement of specific and measurable results. This cooperation has also been reoriented based on the needs generated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Vice Minister for National Planning, Carlos Molina, highlighted “the experience of work and shared responsibility with EUROsociAL+ to make progress in complex challenges for the recovery and sustainable development of the country. To this effect, the dialogue tables have enabled corporation to generate a strategic value regarding social and economic reactivation in the face of Covid-19 and natural phenomena such as tropical storm Eta, which is currently affecting the Central American region. EUROsociAL+ strengthens the management of public policy and the commitment to results and the principles of solidarity, reciprocity, complementarity and self-imposed conditionality.”
From the European Union, Alberto Menghini, head of cooperation at the EU Delegation in Costa Rica, highlighted “the complementarity of EUROsociAL+ with other European Union initiatives in public finances and the fight against gender violence, and its support for the Covid-19 response plan led by the Secretariat for Central American Social Integration (SISCA). In addition, it calls for addressing an issue as important as the reality of migration in the country and in the region.”
In Costa Rica, EUROsociAL+ has launched 28 country-level actions and 9 of a regional or sub-regional nature, implemented jointly with 16 national institutions. These joint projects cover areas of gender equality, governance and social policies. Among them, we can highlight the National Policy for Effective Equality between Women and Men 2018-2030, with the National Institute for Women; the Policy and the Open Justice Plan aimed at the Ibero-American sphere, with the Judiciary; and the Care Strategy of the National Network for Child Care and Development of the Mixed Institute of Social Care.
This permanent, inclusive and structured dialogue between Costa Rican institutions and the European Union has made it possible to support priority and strategic policies that are currently being analysed in an innovative systematisation exercise, which will offer a comprehensive picture of the results achieved within the framework of EUROsociAL+, emphasising its impact on the population targeted by public policies.
Author: EUROsociAL+, MIDEPLAN and the EU Delegation in Costa Rica.
