2.6 National development plans

Alongside these specific policies, strategies and programmes, the government of Ethiopia has also adopted several major plans for national improvement. The Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) is a national development plan prepared by the Government of Ethiopia. It aims to improve the national economy and bring an end to poverty by increasing opportunities for commercial agriculture, large-scale industry and infrastructure development. All sector plans are aligned to the GTP. The first phase, GTP I, covered the period from 2010 to 2015. A follow-up plan, GTP II, will cover the next five years to 2020 and is expected to build on progress made so far and set further goals for economic development for Ethiopia. You will learn more about GTP II in Study Session 15.

In 2005, partly in response to the target in Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (see Box 2.1), the Ethiopian government adopted the Universal Access Plan (UAP). The UAP is a national WASH plan that sets out the targets for WASH improvements. It initially covered the period from 2006 to 2010 and was revised to align it with GTP targets and strategies. This second iteration, UAP II, has been in place from 2011 to 2015.

Box 2.1 Millennium Development Goals

In September 2000, the Millennium Summit of world leaders adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015, which became known as ‘the Millennium Development Goals’ (Figure 2.8).

Figure 2.8 The Millennium Development Goals were grouped into eight areas.

Each goal had specific targets for improvements to be achieved by 2015. The target for access to water and sanitation was included in Goal 7 ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’, and aimed to:

  • Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Note that this is stated as a proportion, which means it is not an absolute number of people but depends on the starting conditions. If 100% of a population were without access at the start then the target is achieved if this is reduced to 50% – but this could still amount to many millions of people.

The MDGs have been followed by the Sustainable Development Goals for the period from 2015 to 2030. These are described in Study Session 15.

(Millennium Project, 2000)

Very similar targets for improved water, sanitation and hygiene that had been stated in the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) and Universal Access Plan (UAP) were adopted by the One WASH National Programme. The OWNP targets for the Ethiopian population are:

  • 98.5% of the population to have access to safe water supply (100% in urban areas; 98% in rural areas)
  • reduction of the proportion of non-functioning water supply services to 10%
  • 100% access to basic sanitation (improved or unimproved)
  • 77% of the population to practise handwashing with soap at critical times
  • 77% of the population to practise safe water handling and water treatment at home
  • 80% of communities to be ‘open defecation free’ (OWNP, 2013).

2.5 Health Sector Development Programme

Summary of Study Session 2