In Costa Rica, the Defensoria de los Habitantes (national ombuds) has developed and implemented a four-year strategy to prevent conflict that involves analysing complaint data to better address grievances through targeted and context-specific interventions.

To implement this strategy, national human rights institutions (NHRI) in Costa Rica used existing data to identify three priority workstreams required in efforts to ensure the prevention of conflict: 1) strengthening institutions, 2) poverty and inequality, and 3) and polarization and exclusion. Then, a data collection plan was developed to identify areas for intervention and the most vulnerable demographic groups, and a typology was created to classify complaints in various domains. Finally, the SDGs and their targets were used as a strategic framework to structure the reporting of achievements in relation to conflict prevention through SDG 16.