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Working Better Together as Team Europe Through joint programming and joint implementation Guidance
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Section 1: The value of the working better together approach

 

 

Working Better Together as Team Europe
Through joint programming and joint implementation

Guidance

A tool to help EU Delegations work better together with Member States as Team Europe and with like-minded partners and country stakeholders, through joint programming and implementation.

 

 

The value of the working better together approach

A coherent and coordinated approach to EU external action will be important for the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda globally

New European Consensus on Development, 2017

The Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy (the Global Strategy) and the new European Consensus on Development (the European Consensus) make a strong case for working better together at partner country level through tailored and contextualised joint programming approaches. The advantages of joint programming and joint implementation are summarised here so that they can be adapted for use in communications and advocacy with other development actors.

 

The European response to a changing global context requires a ‘working better together’ approach

The Global Strategy acknowledges a changing global order. With official development assistance declining as a share of total development finance, the EU and Member States, as Team Europe, need to engage beyond the issues of traditional development cooperation in order to remain relevant to our partner countries. Facing an increasing number of actors and a diversity of relationships with partner countries, Team Europe will only have significant leverage if we work in a coordinated and coherent way. Working better together through joint programming can help Team Europe to combine international cooperation and development priorities into a common European message and strategy at country level.

 

A ‘working better together’ approach is about increasing European visibility and influence

Joint programming and joint implementation support Team Europe in speaking with a common voice based on shared objectives at country level. Policy coherence and effective communications can raise the profile and visibility of the European presence, boosting our leverage in policy dialogue. Increased collaboration, including the pooling of financial and technical resources, can bring European investments to scale, increasing their prof ile and impact while also demonstrating accountability for results. These efforts will be further fortified by the introduction of Team Europe Initiatives, large-scale projects that will position Europe as the partner of reference.

 

Joint programming is a flexible and country-tailored process

The European Consensus states that joint programming is voluntary, flexible, inclusive and tailored to the country context. This allows Team Europe to work with partner country counterparts to ensure that joint programming is adaptable and responsive to changing needs, crises and priorities at country level. Joint programmming’s flexibility makes it the ideal tool for bringing all our policy commitments (global, European and bilateral) together in a single framework at country level.

 

Thinking jointly about implementation improves our effectiveness

All European partners have committed to the Busan effectiveness principles and the work of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (see annex 4). Joint programming implies planning, implementing and monitoring together so that there is reduced fragmentation and greater transparency. For the partner country, it is an opportunity for greater alignment and inclusiveness.

In practice, defining common or joint objectives at country level through joint programming and Team Europe Initiatives can lead to opportunities for joint implementation. Looking jointly at implementation places our collective country assistance in a more strategic framework. By bringing together our knowledge and resources, Team Europe and — when relevant — like-minded partners can explore concrete ways to pool them efficiently at country level. Joint implementation can also contribute to reducing fragmentation and expanding the visibility of Team Europe members and their actions.

 

Lessons learnt

Learning from past experience takes place at both country and global level. The European Union’s Global Strategy: Three Years On, Looking Forward, observes that:

European foreign policy would become more effective through closer coordination between Member States, including better coordination between EU and Member States’ activities, and through greater consistency between what Member States agree to in EU settings and what their policies do in practice. This is true at the level of policy design — as demonstrated by common frameworks such as the European Consensus on Development —, on the ground within third countries (joint programming, joint results frameworks, joint implementation), as well as in multilateral contexts, notably by supporting the implementation of international law, including international humanitarian law, and the international commitments the EU and Member States have made.

The most strategic and comprehensive independent assessments to date include an evaluation published in April 2017, and the Joint Programming reflections of an OECD Peer Review in 2018.

The evaluation highlighted that:

[Joint programming] has also helped to make EU and Member States aid more harmonised, working towards commonly agreed objectives and adopting commonly agreed strategic approaches. Even though this might not yet have led to improved aid effectiveness indicators […], it has led to an improved division of labour within sectors and laid the foundation for more effective aid and more effective development

The OECD Peer Review of the EU in 2018 concluded that ‘The EU’s joint programming exercises help support the 2030 Agenda and advance the effectiveness agenda in partner countries, as they harmonise efforts towards joint analysis and commonly agreed objectives.’

 

Each section or chapter may be used separately to fulfil a specific need for guidance, which means there may be some overlap between the different parts of the document.

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