European Joint Indicative Programming Document for Lao People's Democratic Republic 2016-2020

The first "European Joint Indicative Programming Document for Lao People's Democratic Republic- 2016-2020" was approved in June 2016. This is a breakthrough development that makes the most of the potential of Joint Programming.

EU and participating donors can use a Joint Programming document as an umbrella document or in place of their respective country strategy papers (for the EU, JP documents can ideally replace the Single Support Framework or Multi-Annual/National Indicative Programme).

In the case of Laos, the EU has replaced its own Multiannual Indicative Programme by embedding it completely into the Joint Multiannual Indicative Programme. The Lao Joint Programming document is also used by France and Germany - Germany plans to use the JP strategy as their core/umbrella strategy to partially replace their bilateral strategy.

Germany also partially replaced their bilateral strategy documents for Mali. Preparations for (partial) replacement of bilateral strategy documents for Cambodia are in progress.

France has replaced its bilateral programming in Mali, Comoros and Chad.

Both France and Germany plan to continue using Joint Programming Documents in their respective priority countries for cooperation. Other EU MS have expressed the intention to replace their bilateral strategies in some of their partner countries (NL, IT; pending decision: SE, LV, LUX, EL, SK).

Please check the Guidance Pack - part 5 for more information on replacement.