After four years of support, the Knowledge for Climate program had organized in 2013 an external Progress Review of the Delta Alliance. Apart from assessing the progress till date the objective of the review was also to provide a ‘preview of the Delta Alliance beyond Knowledge for Climate program support’. The review itself should also focus on the optimization of the organizational and substantive objectives and the assessment of the societal impact.

The procedure of the review consisted of the following components: a Review Report prepared by the International Secretariat, an Assessment of the Report by four external reviewers with a possibility for reply by the secretariat and a Review Meeting with approximately 25 people representing governmental agencies, the private sector, ngo’s and the scientific community.

As a result it can be said that the review process has been a very good opportunity for reflection on the current status and the future of the Delta Alliance.

The Review meeting held on 10 October 2013 can be characterised as a vivid meeting with fruitful, open and constructive discussions and feedback. The meeting started off with an introductory presentation by Rik van den Bosch and Renske Peters. Although there was also some criticism on the achievements of the Delta Alliance, the overall objectives of Delta Alliance as a neutral, facilitating knowledge network was broadly supported. The role and utility of Delta Alliance was recognized.

Some of the most important issues raised during the meeting can be summarized as follows:

• The niche for Delta Alliance has always been to make knowledge accessible to practitioners and change agents: public sector, private sector and NGOs. Delta Alliance wants to act as a knowledge broker between these sectors. Delta Alliance does not have the ambition to exchange knowledge in the scientific domain
• For real impact and visibility it was advised to concentrate for the next 2 years on less (but active) Wings, concentrate on the most pressing issues in these Wings and show impact in these Wings.
• For the time being the Dutch Wing will have to be the flywheel for the Delta Alliance organisation and its network. At the same time the Dutch Wing should not dominate the international network. Therefore it was stressed that a distinct difference should be made between the strategy for the Dutch Wing and the strategy for the international network.
• Delta Alliance should continue to co-develop with GWP the Global Program of Action on Deltas (‘Enabling Delta Life Initiative’), because of its specific expertise on deltas.
• The financial sustainability of the Delta Alliance is considered as a challenge. It is often assumed that knowledge is a good business generator, but this doesn’t always proof to be that easy. Some examples of business generation through knowledge application were mentioned during the review meeting.
• The cooperation with and between the Wings has to be strengthened through more focus on the problems of the active Wings. For this purpose Delta Alliance will formalise its relationships with the Wings and clearly define mutual roles and tasks and it will intensify the activities and contribution of the Advisory Board which should increase ownership of the Wings.

These issues were intensely discussed during the meeting and for each of them several considerations and suggestions were given during the meeting which can be found in the meeting report. Where possible the results of the Review will be implemented during the coming year.