The overall goal of this project is to contribute to sustainable water resources management, in particular agricultural water management, as a result of a better knowledge of the water resources situation through improvement of the national water monitoring capacities and the water knowledge base. This will contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger through improved food security (MDG 1) and sustainable environmental management (MDG 7).

The project will: (i) develop a methodology for monitoring and management of water-related information for improved decision-making; (ii) to conduct a baseline survey on water availability, water use and water productivity in a few river basins in Benin and Ethiopia; (iii) provide policy and management options to decision-makers to improve the profitability of water use in agriculture through targeted investments in the agricultural sector; (iv) increase the capacity at national and regional level with regard to data collection, data interpretation, modelling, GIS, and data dissemination in the field of water resources and their use in agriculture, as well as the knowledge of laws, institutions and policy options in agricultural water management.

Primary beneficiaries are the government institutions charged with water resources monitoring and planning. Decision makers in government, civil society and on the international level benefit from the improved availability of up-to-date information on water resources.

The ultimate beneficiaries, however, will be communities, particularly in rural areas, who will benefit from well-targeted programmes and interventions based on more accurate water data.