Costa Rica

Publications

Situation and Priorities

Social protection situation
Costa Rica is an upper-middle income country with high human development. During the last three decades, per capita income has grown significantly and the country also made a huge investment in social development. The Costa Rica model of social insurance is often referred to as an example of good practice in extending social protection to the informal economy. All social insurance is managed through one fund, the Caja Costariciense de Seguridad Social (CCSS), with mandatory and partly-subsidized coverage of the informal economy. Although universal contributory coverage has yet to be achieved, as of 2019, 72% of the total population were active contributors.

Despite these achievements, income poverty has remained static at around 20% of households, and inequality has increased. While social assistance programmes targeted at the extreme poor have been relatively successful (5.8% in 2019), the economic effects of COVID-19 have undone many years of progress.
COVID-19 and other crises
COVID-19 caused the poverty rate to increase from 20% to 26%, and the extreme poverty rate to increase from 5.8% to 7%. (INEC, 2020) Nevertheless, the effects were mitigated through the social protection measures adopted by the Government, which included:
  • Providing a three-month cash transfer, Bono Proteger, for workers laid-off, temporarily suspended, or placed on reduced hours. The program paid between 62,500 and 125,000 colones (US$100-200) to approximately 684,000 thousand workers as of October 2020, 23% of whom were from the informal economy.
  • A one-off emergency cash transfer, Subsidio Emergencia, was established for vulnerable persons. It provided 125,000 colones (US$200) for approximately 33,000 households. Non-contributive pensions were also increased for 126,000 beneficiaries.
For a more complete list of measures, please consult the ILO COVID-19 Monitor.
Government and social partner priorities
The National Plan of Development and Public Investment 2019-2022 has five aims:
  • reduce unemployment
  • reduce poverty
  • economic growth
  • decarbonization
  • stop growth of inequality
The Estrategia Nactional Puente al Desarrollo is the government's flagship programme to eradicate poverty. It is focused on helping 22,5000 households in multidimensional poverty through comprehensive interventions.

Results

Over the past five years (2016-2020), the ILO has supported the government of Costa Rica in a number of areas, including:
  • 2016: Supporting the reform of the domestic work insurance system, which extends coverage to hourly domestic work and improves financing mechanisms.
  • 2017: Assisting the reform of the Pension regime, which provided financial and acturial sustainability to the system. This reform impacted 1.6 million contributors and their families.
  • 2018: The ILO contributed to the adoption of the regulation on contributory insurance for the coffee harvesting population. This regulation provides health and old-age coverage for approximately 75,000 people.
For more details on ILO support to institutional changes, please consult the results monitoring tool below.

Workspaces

ILO Experts

IMG
Fabio Duran Valverde
Social Protection and Economic Development Specialist
IMG
José Francisco Ortiz
National Project Coordinator