In Costa Rica, technology-facilitated gender-based violenceReforms that combat gender-based violence are essential for fostering an inclusive society and government that respects human rights and promotes gender equality. Technical specifications: Commitments... More (TFGBV), violence against women in politics and gendered gaps in public policies and automated decision-makingAs governments are increasingly turning to algorithms to support decision-making for public services, transparency and accountability of algorithm use is necessary to minimize their harm and increase ... More (ADM) systems are urgent challenges to democracy. GenderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More disparities undermine inclusive representation, weaken institutional legitimacy, and limit citizens’ equal ability to participate fully in public life.

To improve this reality for women, at ACCESA, we have developed people-centered solutions to create a more equitable and democratic society with the support of the International Development Research Centre’s FOGO mini grant. Our work includes three projects—a proposal for an inter-institutional protocol to address VDFTD, a study to analyze and propose recommendations to tackle violence against women in politics and a gendered assessment on public policies and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and SDA systems.

Addressing TFGBV

TFGBV refers to the gender-based harms enabled by technology, including online harassment, sharing private images without consent, which create unsafe digital spaces for women and gender minorities. Globally, young women aged 18–24 are particularly impacted, with over half experiencing online violence.

Combating TFGBV poses two problems in Costa Rica: the absence of existing national frameworks and the difficulty of integrating survivors’ voices without causing re-victimization.

Through the mini-grant, we developed a proposal for an inter-institutional protocol to address TFGBV. Despite the challenges, we committed to a victim-centered design process, consulting public officials, women’s organizations, activists, and academia.

The result was the region’s first practical guide for reporting, receiving, and handling TFGBV cases that prioritizes clear steps for informing victims, providing psychological care, offering social support, and ensuring legal guidance to file a formal complaint.

Research on Violence against Women in Politics

Women in politics and leadership continue to face political violence such as defamation, intimidation, and unequal access to leadership. UN Women offered a stark warning in June 2025: if the world continues at its current pace, it will take 130 years to achieve gender equality in the world’s decision-making bodies.

Despite Costa Rica’s recent legislative advances to prevent, punish, and eradicate violence against women in politics,women continue to face verbal harassment, online attacks, and structural barriers designed to deter their political participation.

Through the grant, we conducted a study to provide up-to-date data on female political violence, why incidents weren’t reported, the role of technology, and the impacts on victims’ professional and personal lives. This research shows that 78 percent of women in politics and leadership positions interviewed said that they experienced political gender-based violence. However, 65 percent said that they did not report these incidents.

Building on the findings, the study also included recommendations for effective prevention and response, aimed at fostering safer political environments for women. For example, we propose three actions:

1. Expand accessible training in leadership, negotiation, and political participation, especially for underrepresented groups.
2. Create mentoring and support networks with legal and psychological services for victims.
3. Build clear indicators to ensure effective implementation of the law and adoption of internal regulations by political parties and local governments.

Assessment on Gender Biases in Public Policy

Public policies often fail to embed gender analysis, act to address cultural stereotypes, and have weak monitoring systems. Public institutions are also increasingly relying on ADM systems and AI to allocate resources, benefits, or services. For these reasons, it is essential that we examine gender biases in public policies and challenge the idea that decisions made by algorithms or automated systems are unbiased.

To fill this gap, we launched a gendered assessment on public policies and ADM systems—the first of its kind in Costa Rica. Our analysis found that while most policies reviewed include sex-disaggregated data (86 percent) and nearly all recognize differences between genders in their assessments (93 percent), only 57 percent go further to explore the unique needs and experiences of different groups of women. None of the policies fully identified the barriers women face or offered clear strategies to address them. These gaps risk being replicated by automated systems that rely on biased policy data.

As a result, our assessment calls for a more integrated, gender-sensitive approach in policies and ADM systems to ensure that new technologies actively promote equity rather than reinforce discrimination. This includes applying gender-sensitive evaluation instruments, ensuring algorithm transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, using diverse and representative data to reduce bias, establishing standards and accountability mechanisms, providing training on gender equality for developers and policy-makers, and ensuring meaningful inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More of women and gender minorities in all phases of design, implementation, and evaluation.

The Importance of a Gendered Lens of Government

Throughout the project, we faced significant challenges: a lack of local examples to guide us, limited available information, victims’ fear of participating, and the need to adapt complex tools to local realities. Nonetheless, we confirmed that open government provides a transformative framework to address these issues. Co-creation with diverse stakeholders, public consultation to encourage citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, and the development of tools for transparency and accountability were key to our progress.

Above all, we reaffirmed that a gender lens must be a cross-cutting priority across public policy. This means directly including women’s voices, recognizing all forms of diversity, and building institutions sensitive to digital realities and the disproportionate impacts faced by women and gender minorities.

Ultimately, we produced concrete outputs for dissemination and implementation while prioritizing openness, participation, and inclusion to help build more just, equitable, and responsive institutions capable of meeting democracy’s urgent challenges. Our work reaffirms the importance of collaboration, adaptability, and the commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... of civil society organizations like ACCESA in building more democratic, open, and inclusive societies.

ACCESA is a Costa Rican civil society organization, member of the National Commission of Open State (Costa Rica’s OGP Multi-Stakeholder ForumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple...), and an expert in open government and co-creation processes. Its main goal is to foster the development of an open, democratic, inclusive, and diverse society by promoting transparency, accountability, access to public interest information, and citizen participation.