There is reasonably wide recognition of the potential merits of multiple use water services (MUS) in Ethiopia as a result of innovation by NGOs and advocacy by research institutes. The acronym ‘MUS’ is itself increasingly a part of the sector discourse and interest in MUS is on the rise given the growing awareness that food insecurity and water insecurity are related. However, MUS interventions and modalities have generally not been scaled up widely in the country. This seems largely due to the same barriers that MUS faces elsewhere: the conventional institutional structuring of water policies, water services implementation programs, and professional disciplines into fragmented, parallel operating ‘vertical’ sectors of single water uses such as rural water supply and agriculture. Three best-bet opportunity areas are identifed for taking MUS forward. In addition, there is an opportunity for a learning network on MUS focusing on policy and practice in Ethiopia to learn from and leverage the activities of various partners.