Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

Ensuring adequate preparation, managing expectations and choosing the most appropriate format for consultations.

Successful consultations and dialogues are informed by several principles that should underpin the preparation of all consultation events in a Team Europe approach:

• Be aware of the stakeholder’s motivation for engaging in dialogue and preparing a constructive response;
• identify shared goals, mutual interests and partnering principles for each consultation;
• ensure that there is added value for participants, not only the organiser, with proper feedback and follow-up actions if required;
• invest in the ‘soft skill set’, including negotiation skills, that drives a successful outcome.

In line with the human rights-based approach’s working principles on participation and inclusion (see Annex 4.1), the leave-no-one-behind principle and the provisions of GAP III, any consultation process should:

• ensure a meaningful participation (i.e. notify people in good time, consider the languages used, think about the location, and give participants enough time to seek other opinions and prepare for the consultations);
• ensure the presence of key stakeholders and make consultations accessible to all, including women and people living in marginalised situations or remote locations (e.g. persons with a disability, young people, older people, minorities, indigenous peoples);
• consider holding dedicated consultation events for specific audiences (e.g. women, young people, or groups in vulnerable situations) or on specific themes.

Consultation processes can raise the expectations of stakeholders and managing these expectations is very important, along with a systematic consideration of the political aspect of national stakeholder dynamics. Actors following a Team Europe approach should pay careful attention to developing common key messages that use clear and concise language, and to sharing information openly and providing timely feedback and updates.

Consultations also raise operational challenges. They require time and add an extra workload not only to the stakeholders consulted, but also to the EU Delegation and the Member States’ embassies. This may involve organising meetings, preparing questionnaires, translating documents into local languages, providing access, facilitating reflection and exchange, assessing and compiling results and providing feedback to the key stakeholders on the outcomes of the consultations and how their input was considered. This is why it is very important to align consultations, as far as possible, with those conducted within other in-country processes. For instance, the EU civil society Roadmap, GAPIII/CLIP, human rights and democracy strategy, EU youth action plan, EU Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030, and the guidance note on disability inclusion in EU External Action

In a nutshell, there are two distinct types of consultation processes: dedicated consultation meetings for the Team Europe approach and ‘blended’ consultations:

• Dedicated events: joint programming and TEI meetings and events with a defined Team Europe approach agenda and objectives.
• Blended consultations: making use of established coordination and consultation mechanisms in the country (both formal and informal) to consult on elements of the TEI or Joint Programming process

Joint messaging and policy dialogue

Joint messaging and policy dialogue should be seen as a continuous process, well embedded in the whole cycle of the TEI or joint programming process, to ensure that each dialogue event, whether formal or informal, can be used to build trust, consensus and partnerships. To maximise the value of joint messaging and policy dialogue, it is essential to establish clear communication channels between the actors following a Team Europe approach, the government of the partner country, and other key stakeholders, as outlined above.

The political and operational sections within EU Delegations and Member State embassies and implementing agencies must be involved to ensure a consistent approach. The definition of responsibilities can be informed by the division of labour agreed as part of the Team Europe approach, where applicable. Within joint programming processes, where Heads of Cooperation are the driving members of the process, it is important to allow for the participation of EU Member States’ implementing agencies, where deemed relevant, for example to help identify focal points in partner governments or map sector relationships. Many implementing agencies will have this information readily available or can help to gather it.

More good practices on policy dialogues can be found in the 2017 budget support guidelines. In summary, the guidelines state that effective dialogue requires a proactive, strategic, structured and documented approach. It should be based on robust monitoring and evaluation of data, ideally generated by the partner country. Figure 5 below summarises the key steps in the process:

Image

Image

In Honduras, once the actors following a Team Europe approach had decided upon their joint programming (JP) objectives, a stakeholder analysis was carried out, which identified interlocutors for a policy dialogue, entry points and key messages, as well as relevant Team Europe approach lead actors for each JP objective.

Image

In Zimbabwe, actors following a Team Europe approach agreed to launch a shared online calendar, set up with technical assistance support, in which key events and meetings of interest to the entire group (at national, development partner or internal actor following a Team Europe approach would be highlighted as a starting point for a joint policy dialogue. In addition to support provided by a long-term team of experts for this task (among many others), each TEI participant was also provided with the necessary access rights to update the calendar.

Participants in the six regional TEIs in the Latin America and Caribbean region agreed to develop and regularly update TEI roadmaps, including a timeline of events seen as relevant for a joint dialogue or joint positioning.

Activities to support joint messaging and policy dialogues

As actors in the Team Europe approach come together to adopt common approaches and speak with a single voice, the following specific activities, depending on the time and resources available, could be considered:

• Analyse possible challenges or constraints to effective joint messaging and policy dialogue. Initial joint preparatory work can prove helpful, such as raising awareness of the aims, ambitions and possible barriers to joint policy dialogue in different priority areas.
• Identify contact points in the government responsible for dialogue on specific issues. From the perspective of a stakeholder analysis, it is necessary to understand ‘who calls the shots’ and who the important intermediaries are that can support EU coordination efforts.
• Map sector relationships to results: it may be difficult to understand the linkages between the central agencies, the line ministries and sub-national administrations and how resources, results and accountability are connected. Mapping the roles and influence of key officials will ensure that the dialogue is targeted to the appropriate counterparts, that are accountable for results.
• Actors following a Team Europe approach nominate a lead who will be tasked with preparing an overview of the sector, the main issues, and an approach to preparatory meetings to identify shared priorities. This should draw on the previously agreed division of labour and the work of existing sector coordination groups. Ensuring buy-in from Member States’ Heads of Mission for the joint positioning is essential for driving the joint policy and political dialogue forward. Heads of Mission should be encouraged to take the lead for certain areas where they are seen as having particular expertise and a comparative advantage. TEIs can be an opportunity in that sense, because of the high degree of political buy-in they have gained at all levels, including in the EU headquarters.
• Identify other major and influential non-EU development partners in the sector. Recognise that in some instances partners can exert considerable influence irrespective of their budget for development cooperation and verify the extent to which these actors share the same priorities for the sector as actors following a team Europe approach.
• Develop a timeline to show possible opportunities for dialogue. These might include points at which a new policy or development plan is being designed or developed, e.g. actions to pursue the SDGs at local level, and/or evaluations, reviews and impact assessments, or when major technical or feasibility studies are being conducted.
• Schedule (joint) evaluations, reviews and technical studies to provide timely input to the policy dialogue, including to analyse risks and mitigating factors that can be included in the dialogue.
• Initiate a discussion with several development partners. Use existing sector or national coordination, monitoring and reporting mechanisms to identify the objectives of the dialogue. Additional resources may be mobilised for any analytical work required, such as a dedicated facility or secretariat for a TEI or joint programming, or a broader dialogue facility within the country may provide ongoing support for technical assistance, workshops, coordination tasks or joint missions. Together with analytical work, the outcome will help inform harmonised policy positions.
• Based on consultations and analysis, agree on a procedure for drafting and validating policy briefs. These briefs will present the policy positions that all participating partners will use during any opportunity for dialogue. Developing several policy tools of various timescales and levels of detail will allow them to be used selectively depending on the speaker, event and audience (see chapter 1.4.2 on communication). Ensure that cross-cutting issues, such as the environment and gender equality, are reflected in these policy papers.
• Identify and mitigate the risks of dialogue failure, which can e.g. be related to people, the process or issues discussed.
• Structure Heads of Mission/Cooperation preparation meetings to include updates on policy dialogue in key areas (e.g. public administration and governance) or to discuss negotiation strategy, the division of responsibilities and follow-up arrangements
• Assess the joint policy dialogue by evaluating the outcome so that, as part of a structured and strategic process, incremental improvements can be made.
• Convene regular combined discussions between Heads of Mission and Heads of Cooperation on joint programming and TEI implementation, the impact of policy dialogue, and follow-up priorities.
• Where relevant, e.g. contexts with large populations of refugees or internally displaced people, develop a coordinated dialogue on approaches to humanitarian crises.