2014-10-19
Due to the situation in Egypt during the last year, the project activities were suspended for about 4 months, and consequently, the Egyptian and Japanese governments officially agreed to extend the term of the project for the same period, so the project will end on March 8, 2016.
Under that situation, JICA dispatched an advisory mission for the project in the period from October 12 to 16, 2014, to confirm current progress and operational issues of the project and to make necessary recommendations based on the discussions and consultations with stakeholders.
The mission consisted of two members as follows: (1) Mr. Shimazaki, Executive Technical Advisor to the Director General, Rural Development Department of JICA HQ, and (2) Mr. Azuma, Advisor, Group 1, Rural Development Department of JICA HQ. They collected information and held consultations with stakeholders.
Despite the time limitation, the mission members had a number of meetings with project experts and relevant organizations of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), in order to collect necessary information and to exchange views about the project activities. Based on the information, they made their recommendations for efficient and effective implementation of the project during the remaining period.
On the occasion of the third Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting, that was held on October 15, 2014, the mission members presented the recommendations to the members of JSC, and subsequently, the recommendations were agreed in the form of Minutes of Meetings (M/M), which was officially singed between Mr. Shimazaki and Eng. Fathy, Head of Irrigation Department of the MWRI.
The followings are the main recommendations agreed in the M/M:
Furthermore, it was agreed in the third JSC meeting that some indicators of the Project Design Matrix (PDM) should be modified in order to properly implement the final evaluation of the project after one year.
At the end, the mission members visited Shubra Baloola in Middle Delta, one of the pilot sites, on October 16 and completed all the mission activities.
The mission provided a good opportunity for all the stakeholders of the project to understand the progress of the project as well as the important operational issues to be tackled by each stakeholder during the remaining period of the project.
The Project will be conducted, following the recommendations made by the mission.
The third JSC meeting
The third JSC meeting
Mr. Shimazaki (Left) and Eng. Fathy (Right) signing the minutes.
Visit to Shubra Baloola by the mission.