Joint programming is a direct result of European partners’ longstanding internal and international commitments to delivering better aid and development results through greater internal coherence and efficiency in the face of proliferation and expansion of development activities.
Joint programming is a process whereby the European partners take strategic decisions based on a comprehensive view of European and other donors’ support to Cambodia. It includes a joint analysis and response to the partner country’s national development strategy, defining an in-country division of labour among the European partners and presenting indicative financial allocations per sectors and per partner.
Joint programming respects all European partners' sovereign decisions related to the final level of financial allocations for Cambodia and implementation modalities to be adopted. The European joint programme does not therefore encompass the bilateral implementation plans of individual European partners. However, it does allow European partners to substitute their individual country strategies with this European Development Cooperation Strategy as appropriate.
FOREWORD
This European Development Cooperation Strategy for Cambodia 2014-2018 reaffirms the European partners’ commitment to supporting Cambodia in continuing its impressive social and economic development, making faster progress towards achieving Cambodia Millennium Development Goals and actively participating in the global post-2015 development agenda. At the same time, we recognise that a number of challenges related to democratic governance remain.
This strategy reflects the importance that we place on joint collaboration and partnerships as catalysts for achieving results and increasing effectiveness of our joint development efforts. It is for this reason that ten European development partners active in Cambodia – the Czech Republic, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom – have come together to produce this joint strategy which details our joint priorities, planned programmes and associated framework for monitoring results.
The priority areas of the European Development Cooperation Strategy for Cambodia 2014-2018 are based on the consideration of the Royal Government's development priorities, on our shared values and principles, on the lessons learned from the previous European development cooperation and on the European partners’ comparative advantage.
The Royal Government of Cambodia has set an ambitious target of becoming a prosperous upper middle-income country by 2030. With this strategy, we demonstrate how we plan to work together to build upon the priorities and analysis embedded in the Royal Government’s Rectangular Strategy - Phase III and in the National Strategic Development Plan and to help Cambodia achieve these goals. By working together, we hope to generate greater synergy through our shared understanding of Cambodia’s development priorities and articulation of a consistent set of messages.
The Royal Government adopted a vision of a prosperous society with a strong economy that is diversified, dynamic, and resilient, and where there is an equitable distribution of opportunities. European partners share this vision, recognising that development needs to be country-led with an overarching focus on poverty reduction and sustainable development founded on democratic values.
We also wish to build on our comparative advantages derived from the strengths and experiences of each of the European partners, acquired both in Cambodia and globally. Our long-standing experience in applying policy coherence for development and using a wide range of instruments in policy areas such as environment, trade, the information society and immigration will further enable synergy, consistency and maximum effective use of our resources for promoting development.
This Strategy provides the overall direction for European development cooperation programmes and defines the division of labour between the European partners. We hope that the implementation of the Strategy will further consolidate and streamline European cooperation with Cambodia and will therefore also contribute to increasing the coherence and impact of our aid.
We acknowledge the efforts and contributions made by the European Development Counsellors over the past eighteen months to formulate this document in a consultative and evidence-based manner, learning from experiences of the past European development cooperation and building on views of all stakeholders in Cambodia to ensure we effectively support Cambodian development efforts and achievement of equitable and sustainable development.
We are looking forward to implementing this strategy in close partnership with the Royal Government of Cambodia, civil society, private sector and other development partners.
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