NEF is registered with the Egyptian government as an international NGO. In its Egypt programs, NEF collaborates closely with the Center for Development Services, an Egyptian organization founded and staffed by former NEF employees.

1) Agro-Ecology in Lake Nasser: NEF is operating a pilot agriculture extension project in three villages in the southwestern desert where the Egyptian government plans to resettle one million people over ten years. The project includes a nursery and experimental fields where 2,500 participating farming families are selecting appropriate varieties, seeds, planting cycles and methods and fertilizer and pesticide use. NEF emphasizes an ecological approach to agriculture, along with value-added production and niche marketing, and an eco-health approach to community development. The Canadian International Development Research Centre has funded the project, initially with $450,000 over three years.

2) Vulnerable Urban Youth: In 4 diverse communities across Egypt, NEF works with highly vulnerable Egyptian youth 12-18 years old who live on the street or are forced to work to provide income for their families. Misconceptions about sexuality are widespread among adolescents and youth, and sexual practice put their reproductive and general health at risk. The NEF project, supported by a $262,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, seeks to improve the quality of health and well being of youth in poor urban communities through leadership training and enhancing life skills and sexual knowledge.

3) Community of Practice for Eco-Health: NEF is managing the establishment and development of a collaborative network of researchers, practitioners and policymakers in the Middle East and North Africa in the growing field of eco-health. The project promotes innovative critical thinking and knowledge generation and sharing and seeks to broaden the participation of development specialists in this field. The project is supported by two grants totalling $413,946.00 from International Development Research Centre of Canada and the Ford Foundation and has facilitated more than a half dozen research activities in Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt to date.

NEF's History in Egypt: NEF has operated programs in Egypt since 1989 with many partners and donors, including the Ford Foundation, the International Development Research Centre, the Swiss Fund, the Sawiris Foundation, the World Bank, the World Food Program and UNICEF.

In 2005, NEF won the Agfund prize for its nursing project in Upper Egypt, funded by the Sawiris Foundation. The project encouraged poor, unemployed women to study nursing, improved the curriculum and teaching in nursing schools and enhanced the quality of nursing services in hospitals and health centers. It created a core team of nurses to continue the improvements and nursing quality measurement tools to enable ongoing project evaluation.

In November 2005, NEF issued the first report on corporate social responsibility in Egypt, reviewing the private sector's role in environmental protection and natural resource management and proposing strategies for cooperative partnership among government, industry and NGO's.