Costa Rica

In view of the close polit­i­cal and strate­gic align­ment in devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion between Lux­em­bourg and Cos­ta Rica, the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion has decid­ed to com­ple­ment its region­al efforts with bilat­er­al activ­i­ties. These activ­i­ties will be with­in the pri­or­i­ty areas of the region­al strat­e­gy men­tioned above.

A let­ter of under­stand­ing for­mal­is­ing the inten­tion of the two coun­tries to engage in bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion on these themes was signed by Min­is­ter Fay­ot in Jan­u­ary 2023 dur­ing a vis­it to the coun­try. Nego­ti­a­tions are under­way for a gen­er­al coop­er­a­tion agree­ment between Cos­ta Rica and Lux­em­bourg that cre­ates the nec­es­sary legal frame­work for the imple­men­ta­tion of bilat­er­al projects and pro­grammes and allows LuxDev to estab­lish itself locally.

Through the Nicaraguan Civ­il Soci­ety Sup­port Fund (FASOC), man­aged by Oxfam IBIS (EUR1.8 mil­lion, 2019 – 2023), the Lux­em­bourg Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion sup­ports Cos­ta Rican organ­i­sa­tions work­ing with Nicaraguan migrants and refugees. This approach has been changed, fol­low­ing the ban by the Nicaraguan author­i­ties on Oxfam IBIS oper­at­ing in the coun­try. Cur­rent­ly, projects by three NGOs (Movimien­to campesino, CEN­DEROS and SOS Nicaragua) sup­port: (i) the basic needs of Nicaraguan farm work­ers in Cos­ta Rica, (ii) the improve­ment of the qual­i­ty of life of the Nicaraguan refugee pop­u­la­tion that has set­tled in the north­ern part of Cos­ta Rica, and (iii) the sex­u­al and repro­duc­tive health of dis­placed Nicaraguan women.