Working Better Together as Team Europe (through joint programming and joint implementation)

[UPDATED VERSION - 15 JANUARY 2021]

The objective of this document is to facilitate the working better together approach, outlining good practices and providing advice on how to implement joint programming and joint implementation, as agreed by the EU and its Member States, and introducing Team Europe.

This guidance updates and replaces the existing “Joint Programming Guidance 2018”, incorporating recommendations from different joint programming and joint implementation practitioners, and introducing the concept of Team Europe. It also includes practices and approaches associated with the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, notably the outreach of joint programming, the focus on shared results frameworks and on development partnerships as well as a more comprehensive section on joint implementation.

This guidance sets the policy context for Team Europe to work better together while emphasising the voluntary, flexible and country-driven nature of joint programming processes. The different chapters of the guidance present suggested actions and therefore at each stage there is scope to adapt joint programming practices to suit the country context. The reader will therefore note that this guidance is not intended to be prescriptive. It allows and encourages colleagues working at country level to innovate, adopt pragmatic approaches that are suited to their objectives, capacities and resources.