1.2.4. The new European Consensus on Development
The new European Consensus on Development12 (the European Consensus) sets out a common approach to development policy for the EU’s institutions and Member States. The concept of working better together emphasises the opportunity for increased effectiveness and impact ‘through greater coordination and coherence’. It signals a new era of closer and more coordinated work with partner countries. The EU and MS commit to respond jointly to global challenges and to support partner countries in their progress towards the 2030 Agenda and its 17 associated SDGs. Joint programming, the use of joint results frameworks, and joint implementation are essential to this endeavour.
In the European Consensus, the EU and Member States commit to ‘enhance Joint Programming in development cooperation to increase their collective impact by bringing together their resources and capacities. Joint Programming should be promoted and strengthened, while being kept voluntary, flexible, inclusive, and tailored to the country context, and allow for the replacement of EU and Member States’ programming documents with EU Joint Programming documents’.
Furthermore, the European Consensus states that the EU and its Member States will implement a rights-based approach to development cooperation, encompassing all human rights. They will promote inclusion and participation, non-discrimination, equality and equity, transparency and accountability as well as women’s and girls’ rights. They will also promote gender equality, and stability, security resilience and conflict sensitivity in all their work to maximise the positive impact on peace.
12 https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/document/download/6134a7a4-3fcf-46c2-b43a-664459e08f51_en?filename=european-consensus-on-development-final-20170626_en.pdf