Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno Monday talked to diplomats from around the world about the Costa Rica Consensus, a proposal that developed countries take developing countries' spending on arms into consideration when calculating aid packages, according to a statement released yesterday by the Foreign Ministry.

“Costa Rican is taking advantage of this opportunity to call on countries to incorporate the ethical criteria in the Costa Rica Consensus into their programs to help development,” Stagno said during a meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the U.N. headquarters in New York. Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development also attended.

The Costa Rica Consensus is an “innovative financial mechanism” through which countries can offer low-interest loans and other economic rewards to “encourage the dividends of peace generated by those developing countries that practice good ethical spending,” by using their limited resources for social projects rather than their militaries, Stagno said.

Worldwide, military spending averages $1.1 billion per year, with variations between regions, money that could be much better spent on pressing social needs, Stagno said.

-Tico Times