To achieve the expected impacts of the project, in particular the sustainability of the agricultural systems and the efficiency of the water use in agriculture, a set of intermediate and long-term outcomes need to be accomplished. In the first place both policy and decision makers along with farmers and land users must implement the best management practices and innovations that the project will offer. The strategic setting relies on the bottom-up approach that first defines the research gaps, then address them through the application of innovations. Numerous meetings and awareness sessions with local stakeholders will test the feasibility and validity of the approach. Dissemination and replication of project’s output will be pursued through actions aiming to scaling-up and scaling-out an integrated modelling approach that will incorporate water, soil, crops, and socio-economic indicators. To this end, the training of local stakeholders and communities takes particular importance. This will be clearly defined from the onset of the project, whose one of the major legacies will be a toolbox for water use planning and sustainable management that will be handed over to African partners. The Theory of Change offers a well-articulated logical framework and flow of information based on an agricultural ecosystem approach that starts with problem identification and ends up with solutions. The enormous existing knowledge already present from recent and ongoing research and operational projects, but also related databases, modelling tools, technologies, and operational frameworks will be collected and used as a baseline for evaluation and monitoring. Finally, the project will accelerate the sharing of knowledge on a regional scale and will facilitate information sharing among the countries through the Water Knowledge Hub. The complementarities of the project with other initiatives such as the "Nexus Regional Dialogues Programme" funded by the European Union and GIZ (German Agency for international Cooperation) will also be further strengthened.