The Government of Carlos Alvarado set an ambitious goal to reduce poverty by at least 2% over the next three years. Costa Rica has accumulated more than 20 years of poverty levels stagnating at around 20%.
On Tuesday, the Executive Branch presented the National Plan for Development and Public Investments 2019-2022 (Pndip). For the first time the Plan links what the State and private companies invest in social development projects. Five variables were prioritized to define the national goals:
-Economic growth
-Unemployment
-Multidimensional poverty
-Inequality
-Decarbonization
Considering the Multidimensional Poverty Index (IPM) approach, which began to be measured in the administration of Luis Guillermo Solís, and for poverty by income line, the authorities believe that they will achieve a decrease of at least two percentage points.
This year, the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN) addressed the national goals with a change: simulations were carried out with models to identify them with greater rigor and precision.
MIDEPLAN estimated the effect of 13 interventions aimed at reducing multidimensional poverty based on statistical models. The Minister of Planning, Pilar Garrido, said they are “ambitious” with the goal of reducing poverty by 2.3 to 2.7 percentage points.
The IPM behaves in different ways depending on the area, so there are differences in how it will fall in the regions. The entity identified the most important programs to reduce poverty and define beneficiaries.
The Minister highlighted that access to drinking water, housing bonds and the universalization of the Child Care Network are particularly important.
The objective of the National Development and Public Investment Plan is to generate inclusive economic growth at the national and regional levels, in harmony with the environment, generating quality jobs, reducing poverty and inequality.
However, regarding inequality, the government does not plan any change. The Gini coefficient, which measures inequality (from 0 to 1 in which 0 is perfect equality), showed a reduction of 1.4%, from 0.521 to 0.514 in 2017, a significant reduction but with a low impact.
The Executive plans to maintain the same growth rate of the economy (around 3%). Regarding open unemployment, the goal was set to reduce between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points. Garrido explained that a simulation was done by region, so they expect to make progress outside the Metropolitan Area, where there is higher unemployment.
The Minister explained that the effects of each investment program were analyzed and measured considering the targets and how unemployment decreases. The ones that showed the greatest impact in the area of employment were the Banking System for Development (SBD), the program of the Ministry of Labor and the Alliance Strategy for Bilingualism.
The National Development and Public Investment Plan also seeks to build goals in a more intersectoral manner, following strategic areas:
Infrastructure , mobility and territorial ordering
Economic for stability and growth
Education for sustainable development and coexistence
Territorial development
Human security
Health and social security
Innovation, competitiveness and productivity
In fact, actions against poverty were included in the area of human security, as well as territorial development and education. This section includes specific interventions such as:
-Serving 66,832 households in poverty, including those that are part of the Bridge to the Development Strategy
-Getting six thousand children into the Care Network for the first time
-Going from 28,244 to 34,244 children with IMA care subsidy
Given the country’s difficulties in achieving significant and structural changes with poverty, Garrido said that they intend to be more “aggressive” to help the poor.