diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 246ea48bd6..3852f618fa 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ Notable changes include:
 The following features were backported to 1.10.x releases from 1.10.0 to
 1.10.10 are also present in NetworkManager-1.12:
 
+* Set NM_DISPATCHER_ACTION environment variable in dispatcher scripts.
 * Fix crash during reapply of connection settings
 * Fix connectivity timeout handling (bgo #794464),
 * Retry activating devices when the parent becomes managed (rh #1553595),
diff --git a/dispatcher/nm-dispatcher-utils.c b/dispatcher/nm-dispatcher-utils.c
index 362f31264e..4d04eeca97 100644
--- a/dispatcher/nm-dispatcher-utils.c
+++ b/dispatcher/nm-dispatcher-utils.c
@@ -575,6 +575,8 @@ done:
 
 	_items_add_key0 (items, NULL, "PATH", g_getenv ("PATH"));
 
+	_items_add_key (items, NULL, "NM_DISPATCHER_ACTION", action);
+
 	*out_error_message = NULL;
 	g_ptr_array_add (items, NULL);
 	return (char **) g_ptr_array_free (g_steal_pointer (&items), FALSE);
diff --git a/man/NetworkManager.xml b/man/NetworkManager.xml
index 0ec6b0aee9..7b0513bb92 100644
--- a/man/NetworkManager.xml
+++ b/man/NetworkManager.xml
@@ -181,6 +181,13 @@
       The environment contains more information about the interface and the connection.
       The following variables are available for the use in the dispatcher scripts:
       <variablelist class="dispatcher-environment">
+        <varlistentry>
+          <term><varname>NM_DISPATCHER_ACTION</varname></term>
+          <listitem><para>
+            The dispatcher action like "up" or "dhcp4-change", identical to the first
+            command line argument. Since NetworkManager 1.12.0.
+          </para></listitem>
+        </varlistentry>
         <varlistentry>
           <term><varname>CONNECTION_UUID</varname></term>
           <listitem><para>