Costa Rica

Environmental Agenda for Water in Costa Rica

City/State/Region
Begin – End: 2004 – 2004
Name of organization in charge: Centro Internacional en Política Económica para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Universidad Nacional (CINPE-UNA) y el Foro Ambiental
Type of organization in charge: government civil society
Level: local

Impact

?

Implementation: was the innovation effectively, partially or not put into practice at all?

Fulfillment of Aims: were the goals of the innovation completely, partially or not achieved at all?

Output: has the innovation generated recommendations, initiatives, decisions or policies?

Outcome: if there were a policy output, was it enacted or implemented?

Implementation: yes
Fulfillment of Democratic Innovation’s aim: yes
Output: yes
Policy Outcome: unknown

The Environmental Agenda for Water in Costa Rica was developed through a participatory process, where various stakeholders in different regions - Limón, Liberia and the Greater Metropolitan Area - prioritized 10 main problems and their potential solutions. Based on the water resources problem, the Costa Rica-United States Foundation (CRUSA) decided to request the elaboration of the Environmental Water Agenda to the International Center on Economic Policy for Sustainable Development of the National University (Span. CINPE-UNA) and the Environmental Forum. To this end, bibliographic reviews were carried out, in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders and three regional forums (Limón, Liberia and GAM) were developed in the first months of 2004 to discuss the diagnosis and problems of the integral management of water resources in the country. From these forums, ten thematic axes were agreed upon, which gave rise to the Environmental Agenda of Water in Costa Rica with a series of recommendations for the management of the water resource in the country.

Institutional design

?

Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization: only backed by a governmental program or policy
Frequency: single
Mode of selection of participants: both
Type of participants: citizens civil society
Decisiveness: democratic innovation yields no decision
Co-Governance: yes

Means

Deliberation
Direct Voting
E-Participation
Citizen Representation

Ends

Accountability
Responsiveness
Rule of Law
Political Inclusion
Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting

Formulation and decision-making

Implementation

Policy Evaluation