Costa Rica
Alicia Borja Rodríguez
32,443 (2012)
Irene Garcia Brenes
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Serve current obligations
Improve service delivery
Improve resident outcomes
Focus on measurement
Dedicated innovation team
Leadership from Mayor
Engagement with partners
Support from outside city administration
Curridabat has a development vision called “Sweet City Framework” vision based on five dimensions – Biodiversity, Infrastructure, Habitat, Coexistence and Productivity. The Framework mandates the city’s innovation work.
For instance, the city has implemented a successful funding initiative called “Spaces of Sweetness”, which aims to redesign Curridabat’s neighbourhoods to harmonise their infrastructure with biodiversity. The participatory process of the initiative resulted in a comprehensive proposal to set up collaborative workspaces and change land use as well as mobilising real estate investment through Public-Private Partnerships between the municipality, private landowners and developers.
Along with 44% of cities surveyed, Curridibat has an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 24% of cities surveyed, Curridibat approaches innovation capacity from a holistic/macro level.
Situated in the Mayor’s office, Curridabat’s dedicated work for innovation is led by the Mayor’s Office Director and biotechnology engineer.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Curridabat’s innovation activity includes various kinds of activities including taking risks and testing new ideas; facilitating data-driven analytics; engaging residents in new ways; developing new solutions based on digital technologies; facilitating organisational change within the municipal administration; human-centred design; and rethinking the city’s approach to financing and partnerships.
Like 77% of cities surveyed, Curridibat has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Curridabat also invests in digital systems and physical infrastructure as well as paying for services.
Curridabat has developed partnerships to promote its innovation capacity with other public agencies, private firms, not-for-profit organisations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with academia and think tanks to collect and analyse data, as well as with other cities.