NEHAP Malaysia
NEHAP is a program that provides a more systematic and comprehensive mechanism for establishing sustainable environmental health management, and it also clarifies the duties and responsibilities of various stakeholders in efforts to improve environmental health in the country.
NEHAP is driven through the planning and implementation of environmental health action plans that are comprehensive, holistic, and involve multiple disciplines and intersectoral collaboration at the national level.
Rapid and accelerated global development today has, often without being noticed, involved the widespread use and production of chemicals that are harmful to the environment and have the potential to affect human health.
In this regard, whether at the national or international level, Malaysia supports and is highly committed to various environmental health initiatives, including the First Ministerial Regional Forum on Environment and Health in Southeast and East Asian Countries held in Bangkok in 2007, and the second forum held in Jeju, Republic of Korea, in 2010. During these forums, environment ministers and health ministers from the participating countries, including Malaysia, agreed to develop and implement NEHAP, which aims to identify risks, address environmental health issues, and ultimately improve environmental quality and public health.
Therefore, the Ministry of Health Malaysia has prepared a draft of the National Environmental Health Action Plan (NEHAP) through collaboration with various government agencies to identify, plan, control, implement, and evaluate the country’s environmental health management in order to help address emerging health impacts resulting from declining environmental quality.
On 5 December 2012, the Cabinet agreed to the proposal for the Ministry of Health Malaysia to establish and coordinate NEHAP to address national issues and needs related to environmental health, following the country’s commitments at the international level.
The establishment of NEHAP Malaysia serves to formulate strategies so that its implementation focused on improving environmental health in the identified priority areas can be carried out more economically and effectively. This aligns with its main objective of strengthening collaboration and cooperation across multiple sectors through the efficient use of resources to enhance public health and promote sustainable development.
To straighten and cooperation between various sectors for effective use for resources in improving human health and sustainable development.
To develop human health and sustainable development through the management of environmental health with a systematic and holistic manner in the country.
Ensuring the health of Malaysians by creating a healthy, clean and safe environment.
Ensuring that health concerns caused by environmental factors, whether directly or indirectly, are reduced, regulated and ultimately eliminated.
NEHAP Malaysia continuously evaluates its governance and implementation mechanisms to enhance effectiveness, ensuring NEHAP remains relevant in supporting improvements in the management of environmental health issues. In 2024, NEHAP underwent a restructuring by consolidating the TWG groups to strengthen cooperation, engagement, and the management of relevant ministries, departments, and agencies.
- Main coordinator for NEHAP in Malaysia
- Planning, reviewing, improving and coordinating the activities of NEHAP
- Coordinate and facilitate the preparation of the overall TWG’s action plan
- Secretariat for Steering Committee and Technical Committee
- Develop, monitor, review the efficiency and effectiveness of the NEHAP program through performance indicators
- Coordinate research requirements of environmental health
- Develop, maintaining and updating centralised database (myEHIS) to integrate environmental health data from all areas of concern for the purpose of data sharing and decision making
- Analysing, reviewing and reporting the environmental health status regularly
- Focal point for national and international meetings or forums related to environmental health
TWG2, TWG4, TWG6
TWG1
TWG3, TWG5