The Advisory Panel (APP) started in 1976 as the Egyptian- Dutch Advisory Panel on Land Drainage. Throughout the years, the Advisory Panel widened its scope from drainage-specific issues to water management issues and gradually changed from technical support to policy advice. The main objective of APP is to assist, in an advisory capacity, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) in carrying out its responsibilities with regard to managing the water resources of Egypt more efficiently and effectively. The Panel is chaired by the Egyptian Minister of Water resources and Irrigation, who leads the annual, five days, Panel Meeting. Its long duration, stable membership and appreciated impact on development of water policy have led to the Panel in its present form, where water management issues are discussed in a trusted environment. The Panel is often agenda-setting and offers the forum for discussion of sensitive issues. The work of the Panel is based on information generated from the field in general as well as on experience from The Netherlands and other regions of the world. The Panel provides an effective two-way conduit between the field and the policy making level, and acts as an “informal think-tank” on a broad range of various water issues. The most recent Meeting of the Panel (the 45th) was held from 3-7 April, 2011, in Cairo, Egypt. Several issues were discussed during the meeting among which Management Development in MWRI, Master Plan drinking water and sanitation, Legal tools for cost-recovery, participation and decentralisation, Integration of Agriculture and Aquaculture, Shore Protection, NL water sector cooperation through Water Mondiaal. The meeting was followed by a field visit to the north coasts for a look at the ongoing protection projects.

As a follow- up to the APP consultancy on "Groundwater Management in Egypt, Current Status, Future Challenges and Proposed Actions", APP conducted a workshop to present the outcomes of APP mission to the staff of the sector with emphasis on the Action Plan. The workshop was organized during the period 8-9 December, 2010, in Aswan. The workshop was attended by some 45 ground water engineers representing all 12 ground water directorates (The Sector Head, 3 engineers of the head office, 4 undersecretaries, 12 general directors, 12 senior engineers, 12 senior engineers). The workshop included several presentations (in Arabic) on: groundwater resources and management in Egypt, activities of the Ground Water Sector and a summary of the APP consultancy mission. The workshop also included some working group discussions and presentations on how to implement the proposed and presented action plan. The workshop was very instrumental and interactive where all participants shared their views. The workshop was also a very good opportunity to set up list of priorities and recommendations to be considered by the sector and MWRI before implementation.

As a follow-up to the Panel Meeting Recommendation on water rights, APP in close cooperation with IIIMP projects organized the following two workshops: The 2nd workshop was organized in Alexandria, during the period 1-2 Dec. 2010. The objective of this workshop was to define and understand the necessary factors that guarantee successful and sustainable application of the continuous flow and achieve equitable water distribution within the branch canals. This will be done through agreement between all stakeholders regarding their roles and responsibilities as well as some technical issues. The first day of the workshop was targeted for the stakeholders of the Mahmodia canal command area, while the second day was targeted to the stakeholders of Mit Yazid command area. In general, the participants were representatives of users organizations, MWRI, IIIMP at local, regional and central levels.