Since the beginning of 1990s' emergence of two aspects, such as revival of poverty eradication and "aid fatigue", lead a drastic change in approaches for international development cooperation. One of them is "Program Approach" or "Sector Program" which is becoming a kind of mainstream in social development in Africa.

In this context, this paper firstly discusses the factors which facilitate to succeed in planning and implementing Sector Program. Then Current situations and issues are discussed by comparing Zambia's two consecutive Sector Programs in education sector, that is Basic Education Sub-sector Investment Program (BESSIP) and Ministry of Education Strategic Plan (MOESP).

Through this discussion, it was found that good relation between a recipient country and representatives of foreign cooperating partners, and their effort to incorporate the program into local administration systems are key factors to smoothen formulation and implementation of education sector program in Zambia. A teamwork with government officials also facilitated resident officers of cooperation agencies to understand real situation in the country. This resulted in a change of roles of the resident officers from negotiators for their Headquarters to mediators for the recipient government.