Rapid project development in human societies across the globe has led to the need to strengthen environmental regulation in order to protect the environment, its features and inhabitants from the negative consequences of development without stifling urbanisation. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is therefore, a legally-recognised measure of controlling the excesses of developers or proponents. This study investigated the wide variation in global EIA practice in terms of screening, scoping and administration. The current underlying challenges associated with the practice of EIA across the globe such as inadequate monitoring, bribery, excessive bureaucracy and obsolete environmental legislations were also studied. Some of the challenges were country or region-specific due to the following factors: geographical location, project type, socio-economic pattern and legal institutional framework; however, recommendations were offered on how these challenges can be managed effectively considering the environmental-specificity of the affected countries. The recommendations include: merging identical EIA administrative authorities to reduce bureaucracy; EIA should be carried out by the competent authority in each country and proper post-development monitoring should be encouraged as these would help curtail bribery and reduce bias; check and balance mechanisms must be set in place so as to reduce the excesses of the proponents since they fund the monitoring process; old legal EIA documents in affected countries should be reviewed to meet current needs.