The member countries of CILSS met in 1995 on the occasion of the first "Regional Consultation Workshop on Environmental Evolution of the Sahel Countries". In that occasion, they had pointed out the need to create a regional and national environmental evaluation programme. A consultation mission was carried out in the different member countries and the results were presented in 1996 on the occasion of the second consultation workshop, under the form of two documents:

Volume 1: Diagnosis of the EIS in the CILSS member countries;

Volume 2: 9 recommendations to implement a regional level EIS, based on the strengthened national and improved EIS performance.

Following on the momentum that took place in the CILSS countries, UNDP and UNSO sent two consultants (UNSO and CSE), through the PNUD/UNSO/CVI/95/X01 project, to identify in detail the modalities of establishment of an EIS in Cape Verde. The results are presented in the document “Strategic Proposal for establishment of an Environmental Information System in Cape Verde and the immediate actions to be implemented”, produced in October 997.

The mission had as its concern, to make the point of the existing institutional and technical situation in Cape Verde, within the framework of implementation of an EIS, with the objective to announce the recommendations and actions to be executed.

Staff training and elaboration of a catalogue of existing data in Cape Verde are among the immediate activities to be implemented.

Following the recommendations of the 1997 UNDP/UNSO mission, an international consultant came to Cape Verde with the objective of identifying the existing constraints between producers and users of environmental information, and to act as resource person during a national workshop.

This workshop was carried out in Praia, from 27 to 29 April 1998, under the form of expositions and group activities on the themes discussed by the EIS, mechanisms of supply and demand in matters related to environmental information and identification of constraints

for implementation of an EIS in Cape Verde.

At the end of this mission, the consultant recommended the creation of a reference document that indicates the guidelines in matters of environmental information and requested the different institutions to elaborate a catalogue on the existing information.

At the end of 2001 and beginning of 2002, SEPA (currently DGA) recruited a local specialist and a CSE consultant to create a catalogue of the existing data on desertification and drought in Cape Verde and to elaborate a web site.

In parallel, data coming from the different participating producing institutions were centralized and reorganized in SEPA in view of the creation of a prototype of the Geographic Information System in Cape Verde, composed of homogeneous data, although proceeding from different producers.

The second National EIS Workshop took place from 6 to 8 February 2002, and had as objective to redynamize the process, on the basis of a logical approach to the EIS. The production and treatment of the data, the institutional framework and the reinforcement of capacities.

Several scenarios on the themes "harmonization and standardization of data, production processes and institutional and organizational aspects" were discussed in this workshop. A consensus on the architecture of EIS was obtained, on the role of each actor within the system, as well as on a letter of agreement, whose draft version was written. This letter has never been rectified. The technical aspects almost went unexplored.

In May 2002, two CSE consultants came to Cape Verde with the objective to provide GIS training to staff from several institutions intervening in EIS. They inventoried and harmonized certain geographic data relative to Santiago island in order to finalize the prototype.

The year 2004 marked the appearance of the EIS in its current form.

That year was marked by the beginning of PANA II (2004 - 2014) that foresees the creation of an Environmental Information System, as a tool for monitoring environmental quality .

On the other hand, the country invested greatly in the information and communication technologies, which has promoted the creation of a technological environment that is favorable for implementation of EIS.

The French Cooperation, through the FSP 2002/130 "Support to Sustainable Management of Natural resources in Cape Verde” project, provided exclusive funds to DGA and a dedicated technical assistance to EIS.