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The Strategic Environmental Assessment is a tool of environmental management that is applied to identify the environmental impacts of policies, plans or programs, as well as their alternatives. The objective of the article was to carry out a documentary research with the purpose of analyzing the historical evolution from its appearance until our days and to deepen in the different policies, plans and programs of environmental sustainability carried out throughout history, the different regulations and current legislations, as well as research and methodological guides elaborated in the world referred to this topic. We consulted around 58 bibliographical materials that address the subject (books, articles, doctoral theses, master's theses, methodologies, memories of events and laws) published in the period from 1992 to 2019. It is concluded that the EAE conceptually precedes the EIA and there is a progressive increase in the number and diversity of procedural and methodological approaches. As soon as progress is made in the application of methodologies and obligatory nature, the European continent is at the forefront, and in the case of the African continent, particularly Angola, the SEA is a novel subject that can be advanced in the development of assessment and control tools, and its application is limited by the presence of obstacles related to: 1) absences of norms and laws; 2) limitations of the capacity of the institutions and 3) difficulties related to the availability of information. It is proposed that the methodology created by the SEAN be applied in this country, due to the advantages it presents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]