Improving multi-level governance in Costa Rica

This chapter describes the importance of effective and efficient multi-level governance to enhance national development outcomes for citizens and businesses. It highlights that Costa Rica’s multi-level governance is based on a mix of institutionally autonomous and territorially decentralised entities with currently very limited leverage for the latter, given the minimal level of public expenditure at the sub-national level and basic responsibilities in terms of public service production and delivery. It also studies the effectiveness of the Costa Rican constitutional reform of 2001 to allocate more functions and resources to local governments. The chapter suggests ways to improve the delivery of services across the territory, and close the urban-rural gap through the use of contracts to facilitate the functional relation between the central government and municipalities the creation of a network of community agents providing local government with capacity building and the introduction of flexibility in the governance system to help tailor policies to places. The