Costa Rica has made progress towards achieving sustainable development goals but still faces challenges. It was the first country to sign a pact supporting the UN's sustainable development goals. However, poverty remains an issue, especially in rural areas, and inequality is growing. While education access is high, quality differs between urban and rural areas. Costa Rica generates most of its electricity from renewable sources and has reversed deforestation, but economic growth has slowed in recent years. Overall, the document discusses Costa Rica's efforts towards sustainability and areas like infrastructure, research investment, and crime that require further improvement.

1. MBA- APPLICATION
Rebeca Hernández Guillén
Id: 11384-0633
International MBA & Master in Corporate Communication

2. QUESTION: DO YOU THINK THAT THE LIFESTYLE OF THE INHABITANTS OF YOUR TOWN OR
CITY REFLECTS BEHAVIOR THAT IS IN LINE WITH THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT? IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT SHOULD BE IMPROVED?

3. San José, September 9, 2016 - Costa Rica became the first
country in the world to sign a National Pact for the
achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
SDG represent the largest and most integrated effort of mankind to
fight poverty and inequality, promote education and health, protect
the environment and promote justice, among other development
issues. Costa Rica was one of the 193 countries that in 2015 assumed
the commitment to meet the 17 ODS in the framework of the
General Assembly of the United Nations.

4. RANKED #53
AT THE SDG INDEX

5. BUT

6. LET’S HAVE A…

7. These are the 17 SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS. I am going to address
Costa Rica’s most challenging areas and its
biggest achievements in some of the most
important goals.

9. Poverty has always kept at 20% or
lower. However, differences in
development and inequality have
increased the most for homes in rural
areas. For they have difficulties in term
of housing, employment and food. The
poor do not even get to overcome the
line of poverty.
In Costa Rica, malnutrition is not
highly risky . Actually, our population
struggles far more with eating
disorders than with not having what
to eat. The most affected group is
children. Our kids are struggling with
obesity and overweight.

10. Education has always been our strength; 98% of our
population are literate. However the fact, our quality is
concentrated on urban areas, leaving the rural
circumference highly unattended. The first levels of
education in our system are in need of improvements:
better language teaching, strengthening research
skills, inserting entrepreneurship mind set on
students, amongst others.
Because of the rise on pricing, people are opting to
create a shorter career path and are taking on
technical studies. It is harder and harder to be able to
pay for a private superior education, and the initial
years at in the public system lack quality and form
unqualified students. These students struggle to get
admitted to the public Universities.

11. Only 20% of electricity world wide is
produced by renewable energy. In
my country, 90% of our electricity
comes from this source.

12. Costa Rica’s GDP has fall over the past 5 years.
Prior to the global economic crisis, Costa Rica
enjoyed stable economic growth. After 2009 the
economy contracted growth. Yet, it resumed
growth at about 4% per year in 2010-15. Our most
positive sectors are services & tourism.
According to the the National Statistics and Census
Institute (INEC) the country shows a
steady unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. Profiles
with the highest educational qualifications are best
rewarded. But their recent surveys show that the
rate of underemployment has dropped. A full 43.2
percent in Costa Rica are engaged in informal
work; meaning that over one-third of workers
hired by somebody in Costa Rica work in an
informal capacity, so most likely receive little or no
benefits.

13. Costa Rica ranked poorly on the Competitiveness Index
particularly on these subjects. Here are some facts that proof
why:
• Only 13% of Costa Rica's manufacturing companies have ISO-
9001 quality certification, according to a study made by the
OECD.
• 75% of the roads are in poor condition and only allocate a
third of what is needed to maintain or expand them, a joint
ECLAC and Mideplan study revealed (2013).
• The investment in research, barely reaches 0.58% of the
annual Gross Domestic Product, and of which 80%
corresponds to the Government, mainly through the Public
Universities.
• Key infrastructure projects face serious management problems,
for example the contract for an Interamerican Bank loan was
approved in July 2010, without having the designs ready to
execute the projects.
Its all not so bad. On April a bus started functioning only on
hydrogen. And although in other countries there are already
vehicles that work with this type of energy, Costa Rica is the first in
Central America to implement it.
The investment, development and promotion of robotics are just
some of the elements promoted by both the private sector and the
state in Costa Rica. They are betting on advancement in science and
technology at an early age.
Only last year, the MICIT counted in the regional processes of
Science and Technology Fairs the participation of 5 thousand
people, this meant 1,199 projects presented.

14. In general a sustainable city, is characterized by
most of the following aspects:
• urban development and mobility systems for
transport.
• Solid waste, and water treatment plans.
• Natural assets preservation plans.
• Energy efficiency tactics.
• Citizenship participation platforms.
• High citizenship safety .
Costa Rica has began promoting city projects and
this are lead by each city’s governmental
institution:
1. San José Gobierno Sostenible San José)
Sustainable government)
2. Nicoya Ciudad Azul (Nicoya Blue City)
3. Limón Ciudad Puerto (Limón Port City)
4. San Isidro Sostenible (San Isidro Sustainable).

15. • COSTA RICA IS THE ONLY TROPICAL NATION EVER TO HAVE
REVERSED DEFORESTATION.
Policies implemented in the 1980s allowed forests to be re-grown in a
major way. Today, over half of the country is covered in forest, as
opposed to just 26% in 1983.
• COSTA RICA IS INTENDING TO BE COMPLETELY CARBON NEUTRAL
BY 2020.
In the most recent years, Costa Rica has captured more than 90 million
tons of carbon. Costa Rica’s officials have also met with several
proposals in wanting to move forward on starting with initiating the
first Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) on alternatives
to carbon intensive farming.
• THE COUNTRY HAS CREATED A NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE
STRATEGY.
They call it ENCC and it has six subdivisions of focus: mitigation,
adaptation, measuring, capacity building, awareness raising and public
education, and funding.
In the Paris Agreement, Costa Rica has committed to act as a
laboratory for decarbonizing the economy.

16. • MORE THAN 5% OF THE WORLD’S BIO-DIVERSITY CAN BE
FOUND IN THE COUNTRY.
750,000 species of insects, 20,000 species of spider, 10% of the
world’s butterflies, 52 species of hummingbirds and all the
sloths live within the county’s borders.
• 25% OF THE LAND IS PROTECTED
Costa Rica has over 100 protected areas, 801 miles of coastline,
and 121 volcanic formations.

17. Costa Rica has a long tradition of stable democracy. The country
has not had military since 1948, and we pride ourselves on our
peaceful nature. We have never had a terrorist attack, and there
is no history of violent civil unrest. We do have protests, but
they are generally peaceful.
Nonetheless, everyday we feel that organized crime is
penetrating at closer levels than we are accustomed to. The
most widely used indicator of crime is the homicide rate. In
2015, this indicator reached a record high. There were 566
murders, marking a 20 percent increase over the 471 murders
registered in 2014. The murder rate was approximately 11.5 per
100,000 inhabitants by the end of 2015. To many it may not
seem as a dangerous indicator, but actually it surpasses the
threshold of 10 per 100,000 that the World Health Organization
considers to be an endemic level of homicide.
Costa Rica is the best ranked among the Central
American countries and is ranked 2nd in Latin America
in the Global Peace Index 2016.
We have always been recognized for promoting Human
Rights and we do a fine job at it. But we are affected by
issues that attempt against that recognition. We are
ranked 3rd country for Child Pornography and 2nd
destination world wide for Sex tourism.

19. MBA- APPLICATION
Rebeca Hernández Guillén
Id: 11384-0633
International MBA & Master in Corporate Communication