Costa Rica has prepared the first draft of its National Health Policy and drafted a methodological document for producing a plan. This document is currently pending official approval. The Strengthening Food and Nutrition with an Emphasis on Costa Rica’s Motherand-Child Population project has been completed, the outputs of which include food guides for the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, a Breastfeeding Promotion Strategy for the municipality of Santa Ana and an exchange of experiences with countries in the region on food guides.

The SUN Costa Rica platform has an action plan for 2022–2025 comprising the activities and objectives of the institutions that form part of the platform. The inclusion of the Costa Rican Gastronomy Foundation (FUCOGA) as a representative of the SUN Civil Society Network has strengthened the platform. The Letter of Intent for a Comprehensive Approach to Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents, signed by 10 ministers, the subregional coordinator for Mesoamerica of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) representative for Costa Rica and the President of the Republic as an honorary witness, is now in force. Costa Rica made national commitments at the Nutrition for Growth Summit.

Costa Rica has a series of food guides that are available to the population and institutions covering the first 1,000 days of a child’s life and has begun to disseminate educational messages to improve the nutrition of pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under 2 years of age. Costa Rica has also completed a food and nutrition situation analysis for the first 1,000 days of life (June 2021) and a food and nutrition situation analysis with a focus on food systems for the population over 2 years of age (to be published in 2022). These tools have made it possible to standardize the information provided to the general population.

The Ministry of Health, the highest authority on health and nutrition, is responsible for nutrition governance in Costa Rica. A framework law for the promotion of food and nutrition security is currently under consultation with the purpose of improving the country’s nutrition governance. Promotional strategies need to be designed so that food and nutrition issues are considered at the highest levels, especially in terms of budget allocations and the recruitment of human resources to implement actions included in the country’s health and nutrition plans.

Three United Nations organizations (the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), FAO and PAHO) that form part of Costa Rica’s SUN Team have helped develop the Nutrition Action Plan together with the platform’s social actors.