Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

It is important to ensure an inclusive approach to TEI participation. Interested missions/agencies/banks from the EU, Member States and like-minded development partners should inform the EU of who will represent them at each level (steering, management and, where applicable, technical/TEI focal points). EU Delegations (or EU HQs in the case of regional and global TEIs) can take the lead in establishing (and regularly updating) mailing lists for each of these levels for internal communication purposes.

The design and formulation of TEIs consists of three key elements: a TEI concept note, a Joint Intervention Logic (JIL) and an indicative mapping of financial contributions, which – at country level – should be aligned with the national development plan priorities and/or relevant sector policies. As previously noted, the design and formulation process must be shaped considering potential funding and financing sources, with each TEI drawing up a wider range of potential funding and financing modalities and instruments. In general, TEIs should also contribute to the partner country’s political priorities.

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In Jordan, the Sustainable Water Management TEI mainly focuses on good coordination and cooperation. The principal focus is on the Amman Aqaba Water Desalination Project (AAWDCP), a crucial project for this very water-scarce country. Several Member States have indicated that they would like to contribute to the AAWDCP via grants (e.g. the Netherlands) and/or via (soft) loans. In the opinion of the Member States, one of the key success factors is that the initiative should be of high priority and political importance to the Jordanian government, which should create space for the policy dialogue that this TEI involves. The Member States have different areas of emphasis and complement each other well. Some focus on the ‘water-technical’ angle, while others take a broader view (e.g. the Netherlands has successfully introduced an emphasis on the interests of vulnerable groups). One Member State says: ‘Together we have more impact than without the TEI’.

In addition to this minimum common framework, TEI participants may decide to undertake joint and more detailed design work to deepen their coordination. This might involve further joint analysis; preparing joint logical frameworks for specific TEI pillars; or jointly agreeing on how to mainstream issues such as human rights and democracy, gender equality, the environment and climate change. The decision by participating partners on the level of detail of the TEI design work should take account of the estimated added value of jointly implementing and monitoring the TEI and the investment that such closely coordinated processes will require. Past experience and practice with implementing joint programming processes could be very helpful here (see, for example, the relevant chapter on ‘Conducting a joint analysis’ in Annex 2.2 of the present guidance).

The following are some general principles on the design of any TEI document, in accordance with the methodological note on design of TEIs.