Why Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is our initial focus for social housing projects. There are several reasons for this:

Commitment to Eradicate Poverty

In line with their Millenium Development Goals Costa Rica is firmly committed to eradicating poverty and is making measurable leaps and bounds towards its goals by encouraging foreign investment and promoting social housing projects as a solution. Costa Rica’s national bank also has a 23 year proven track record in guaranteeing international donations spent on social housing within the country.

Government Support

In Costa Rica this year $250 million has been allocated for social housing funding by the National Mortgage Bank of Housing. By choosing to partner with the private sector in order to fulfil the need for social housing, the Costa Rican government and National Bank have already created thousands of homes and funded over $700 million in housing solutions over the past 23 years.

Infrastructure

In the past two decades the infrastructure of Costa Rica has been developed considerably. This means building projects can be completed efficiently as the roads, contractors, and resources are already in place to make them happen as smoothly as possible. For us, this means our funds can be used effectively and with maximum impact as logistics budgets are minimised.

Sound Economy

The IMF rates Costa Rica’s economy as being in sound shape and firmly endorses the fiscal policies of its central bank. This means that despite global economic uncertainty the Costa Rican economy is in good shape. For Global Social Housing’s work this is critical, as it means our funds are secure and we will be able to achieve our goals without fear of the political disruption that economic uncertainty can often cause.

Peaceful and Stable Politically

Costa Rica is known as the Switzerland of Central America because it has a well documented history of peaceful stability, and has even acted as mediator for its more volatile neighbors, most notably when Nobel Laureate President Oscar Arias was instrumental in ending the war in Nicaragua. The commitment to peace extends into every tenet of Costa Rican policy and society and in 1949 it abolished its standing army, ploughing money into development and education. This is one of the main reasons we have identified Costa Rica as an ideal starting point for our programs: funds donated to us will be able to achieve our goals as the country is stable.

The Peace Corps

We have chosen to work in countries in which the Peace Corps is established for several reasons. Primarily the support of the Peace Corps means that a lot of the social assessment, analyses and liaison necessary to ensure social housing projects meet their specified aims for individuals are already actioned by the Peace Corps. This is invaluable to us as it means our teams are able to begin work on the communities immediately. They have relationships in place, and a wealth of data to support them in assessing the true needs of the individuals, and the best ways for funds to be allocated to achieve our goals.

Our Connections

Global Social Housing is uniquely placed to facilitate social housing projects in Costa Rica due to the connections we have established over 30 years of doing business in the country. Lisa Mirman, Duke MBA, is half Costa Rican, fluent in Spanish and has a huge network of contacts and relationships spanning the length and breadth of the country.

In addition, Lee Mirman’s experience in venture capitalism at Chase Manhattan Bank as well as relationships with the National Bank, the Housing Ministry, and many NGOs working on the ground mean Global Social Housing projects are supported at both grass roots and governmental levels.