PB in Heredia, Costa Rica

An interview with Jacqueline Fernández Castillo, planning coordinator of the central canton of the city of Heredia, Costa Rica, that explores the implementation of the canton's PB process.

The city of Heredia, founded in 1763, is located in the central zone of Costa Rica. It is the fourth biggest city of Costa Rica with 120,000 inhabitants, and the biggest city on the providence of Heredia, of 450,000 inhabitants.

The province of Heredia is divided in 10 cantons and 43 districts. The City of Heredia constitutes the central canton and it is formed by 5 administrative districts: Heredia, Mercedes, San Francisco, Ulloa y Varablanca. Since 2005, the central canton organizes every year a participatory budgeting process that includes the 5 districts.

Among the main features of this process, 3 stand out: the first is that just organized community groups participate, which works as an incentive for community organization. The second is that the community associations not just develop and prioritize their projects, but also that receive the resources directly from the local government to implement the selected projects. The third one is that this PB process uses an approach of accessibility and gender equality. 

Source: Arizona State University
Author information: Daniel Schugurensky

Year of publication: 2011