The open government principles of transparency, accountability and citizen participation contribute to making sure that the views and needs of all relevant stakeholders are reflected in the policy-making cycle, hence favouring more inclusive socio-economic development. While the numerous benefits of open government initiatives are widely recognised by countries all over the world, Costa Rica has been one of the first to involve the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the state, along with subnational governments, independent institutions and civil society organisations, in the design and implementation of its national open government agenda, thereby moving towards what the OECD defines as an “open state”.

Costa Rica has made important progress in defining and implementing its open government agenda. Indeed, the government made the concept of open government one of the guiding principles of its public administration and defined it as one of the three horizontal pillars of its National Development Plan 2015-18. The election of President Solís Rivera in 2014 provided an important impetus to the country’s open government movement. In fact, the electoral campaign of Solís Rivera was built around the themes of open government and citizen participation.

The Republic of Costa Rica is one of the most stable countries in Latin America, with regular democratic elections since 1953 and a lively and competitive political arena. However, despite this generally positive legacy, citizens have become increasingly dissatisfied with the performance of the most recent executives and have come to voice their concerns by demanding significant public sector reforms to improve the transparency and accountability of the executive branch. To try to meet these demands, the current administration made open government one of the key guiding principles of its electoral programme and has included it as the third pillar of the country’s National Development Plan 2015-18. In line with this approach, Costa Rica has developed an ambitious second Open Government Partnership Action Plan for the period of 2015-2017, and in December 2015became one of the first countries worldwide to issue a National Strategy for Open Government.

A country’s cultural, historical, political and socio-economic context never fails to have a profound impact on its open government policy cycle. In socio-economic rankings, Costa Rica performs comparatively well, but some negative socio-economic indicators have begun to exert a direct impact on people’s lives and to erode Costa Ricans’ confidence in their government. It is in this context that the current government has started an ambitious move towards increased openness. This chapter introduces Costa Rica’s Strategic Vision for an Open State, consisting of the open government pillar of the county’s National Development Plan, the Declaration for the Establishment of an Open State and the National Open Government Strategy. The chapter recommends continuing the ambitious move towards an open state by implementing the commitments made in the Declaration on the Establishment of an Open State.

Robust institutional and legal frameworks are at the heart of the successful implementation of open government policies and initiatives. This chapter analyses the main legal and institutional underpinnings which constitute the basis for Costa Rica’s path towards an open state. The chapter recognises the important progress the country has made through the transfer of responsibility for open government from the Digital Government Technical Secretariat to the Deputy Ministry of the Presidency for Political Affairs and Citizen Dialogue and through the creation of the National Open Government Commission and underlines the solid legal basis for open government at the local level. In order to further strengthen the enabling environment for open government, the chapter recommends passing an Access to Information Law and drafting a Law on Citizen Participation.

This chapter examines the co-ordination and leadership exercised by the Ministry of the Presidency, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy, and the Ministry of Finance, the main Centre-of-Government (CoG) stakeholders responsible for the implementation of open government policies in Costa Rica. It benchmarks the leadership and steering capacity of Costa Rica’s CoG against OECD countries and discusses the most important characteristics of a successful horizontal and vertical policy coordination of open government policies. In order to ensure that the ambitious National Open Government Strategy is successfully implemented, the chapter recommends institutionalising the inter-institutional contact points and creating a system for monitoring and evaluating both the National Strategy and the OGP Action Plan. The chapter further argues that the CoG can only fulfil its ambitious mandate to lead Costa Rica towards an open state when equipped with adequate human and financial resources.

This chapter discusses citizen participation practices that exist at different stages of the policy cycle in Costa Rica and examines the involvement of citizens in the drafting process of the National Development Plan and the country’s last two OGP Action Plans. While the chapter finds that Costa Rica’s levels of citizen participation are relatively low when compared to other Latin American countries, good practices can be found at different administrative levels and at all stages of the policy cycle. In order to systematise these existing good practices, expand their implementation to all levels of governments, and improve upon them, the chapter recommends that the government consider expanding its efforts to promote a culture of civic engagement and participation in public matters and that it consider investing in the capacities of all relevant public institutions to better implement and evaluate citizen engagement initiatives.

This chapter examines open government initiatives at the subnational level in Costa Rica. In light of the ongoing decentralisation process and the growing responsibilities of municipalities, the chapter assesses the scattered good practices that exist across the country and offers concrete recommendations on how to further enhance the engagement of citizens in political processes at the local level. The chapter finds that spreading open government to municipalities requires the strengthening of their administrative, institutional and fiscal capacities as well as increased guidance from the Centre-of- Government. To further harness the potential advantages of involving the local level in the process of the establishment of an open state, the chapter recommends including the subnational level in the National Open Government Policy, including more municipalities in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Action Plan cycles and replicating existing good practices from certain municipalities.