The preparation of the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) for Egypt, initiated in 1999, is currently entering its final phase. The primary aim of the NEAP is to provide support for the introduction of a participatory and demand-driven environmental planning process, favourable to sustainable development. To this end, the development of the NEAP, with the identification of environmental priorities, and needed initiatives, has been carried out through a consultative process involving key stakeholders from central and local government as well as interest groups and organizations.

Within this context, a number of consultative workshops were carried out during 2000/2001 targeting different groups of stakeholders such as women, youth, the Media, universities, and the private sector, with the purpose of creating a number of working groups to provide inputs to the NEAP both at the strategic level and the operational one where project ideas were formulated. Further inputs were obtained from EEAA, line ministries, local government, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGO's) during the second consultation process of the NEAP held in October 2000, to produce an Agenda for Action with detailed description of proposed programs and projects. These cover a period of 15 years (2002-2017) with areas of focus encompassing water quality and management, air quality, management of land resources, desertification, the protection of marine environment, solid waste management, biodiversity, and biological safety. Underlying these areas of focus are cross cutting issues such as institutional development, and economic issues related to Environment.

During the second half of 2001, the finalization of the Agenda for Action will be carried out, together with the publication of the Environmental Profile of Egypt. This will be accompanied with the preparation of the final NEAP, providing a summary and overview of the environmental situation in Egypt and the proposed lines of actions recommended to be implemented over the period of 2002-2017.