Effective planning of objectives and achievable targets for regional development requires the integration of all partners and stakeholders into the planning processes, taking into account their specific knowledge of the local context and so guaranteeing the results orientation of Cohesion funding. This briefing offers guidelines and a set of recommendations for governments in pre-accession countries in order to help them establish and implement the partnership principle with all relevant stakeholders in the programming of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) for 2014-2020.