Disasters Risk Management in Costa Rica: synthesis of the III National Congress of Disasters Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Costa Rica is a country exposed to diverse natural and social conditions that favor the risk of disasters. Diverse sectors work to prevent and mitigate them, as well as doing territorial planning, research, socialization, training, and acting when emergencies happen. There is, in addition, a growing awareness of the need for actions with an inter-and-multidisciplinary framework for an effective risk management, and the relevance of the participation of the population and different public institutions, particularly local governments. Those actions and initiatives are intended to be harmonized on instruments like the National Politics of Risk Management 2016-2030, the National Plan of Risk Management 2016-2020, and the National Strategy for the Climatic Change. A complex but necessary task, which advances can be valuate in national congresses. The three national congresses made since 1988, have allowed valuating such advances and the route that is following the country about those actions, and the third one is not an exception. This article synthesizes the relevant aspects of such congress, as well as the diverse approaches that were exposed, much of them referred to climate change.