Recommendations for Strengthening the Regulatory Framework for Strategic Public Procurement in Costa Rica

This document presents a comprehensive analysis of the Costa Rican regulatory framework applicable to Strategic Public Procurement (SPP), within the context of the General Law on Public Procurement No. 9986 and its regulation. Through a SWOT analysis, it identifies the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that influence the effective implementation of SPP. The analysis underscores the importance of Strategic Public Procurement as a tool to promote equitable social development, environmental sustainability, innovation, and efficiency in the use of public resources. It also proposes a series of recommendations aimed at enhancing regulatory coherence, strengthening interinstitutional coordination, and optimizing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

The document serves as a roadmap toward a more strategic, transparent, and sustainable public procurement system, which will contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and strengthening public management in Costa Rica. It was developed under the framework of the project EcoAdvance: Sustainable Labeling and Public Procurement, in support of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE, for its acronym in Spanish) and the Ministry of Finance. The project is implemented by the German Cooperation for Development (GIZ, for its acronym in German), in consortium with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUKN, for its acronym in German) through funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI, for its acronym in German). 

EcoAdvance is an international cooperation project that seeks to transform consumption and production practices in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. One of its main objectives is to promote public procurement as a tool for climate change mitigation and the protection of biodiversity and natural resources.