Marker
DRAFT!!!!!
CROSS-CUTTING THEMES AT HELVETAS
In Helvetas’ Strategy 2021–2024, several cross-cutting themes guide programs and projects (see Figure 1):
Gender & Social Equity and Learning & Innovation as transversal themes
Advocacy as an intervention approach (alongside Project Implementation and Thematic Advice)
Conflict Sensitivity, Inclusive Systems, and Partnerships as institutional approaches
These themes are expected to remain important in the next strategy period, with climate and disaster risks possibly added as an additional cross-cutting theme.
This document introduces a spectrum to guide the integration of cross-cutting themes into programs and projects, at any stage of the project cycle. The spectrum helps users reflect on how important each theme should be, based on a context analysis, and what that means in practice.
THE SPECTRUM: FIVE DEGREES OF INTEGRATION
The spectrum (Figure 2) shows how strongly a cross-cutting theme is integrated into a program or project. It defines five levels of integration:
Negative
Blind
Sensitive
Responsive
Transformative
The more importance a theme receives, the more a program or project actively promotes change related to it.
WHAT HELVETAS AIMS FOR
Helvetas expects all programs and projects to systematically consider cross-cutting themes.
No project should be theme-negative or theme-blind, as this risks reinforcing or creating inequalities, conflicts, and injustices.
Every program or project should treat each cross-cutting theme in a significant way, meaning at least at the sensitive level.
When a project not only considers a theme but also seeks systemic change, the theme becomes a principal concern. In such cases, the project is considered responsive or even transformative.
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