8.1 The concept of cross-cutting issues in the OWNP

It is commonly agreed that over that last few decades developments have been made in eradicating the world’s poor from absolute poverty. The economic growth and development success achieved by many countries is evidence of this. The joint efforts by the Ethiopian government, its development partners, the private sector and above all, the country’s citizens have made these great achievements possible. Despite this progress however, there are still millions of people who need the most basic services, including WASH. Some marginalised and unserved communities are still behind in benefiting from the success of WASH programmes. Part of the reason for this is the lack of attention given to some significant cross-cutting issues.

Cross-cutting issues are topics that affect all aspects of a programme (i.e. cut across) and therefore need special attention. They should beintegrated into all stages of programmes and projects, from planning through to impact assessment – but this has not always been the case.

There are many cross-cutting issues in the WASH sector. This study session focuses on some of the most important, namely: gender mainstreaming, community empowerment, sustainability, equity and inclusion and social accountability. These themes will be covered one by one in the following sections.