The South Asia Regional Trade Facilitation Program, or SARTFP, is administered by the World Bank and supported by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Program's goal is to identify and build consensus around priority investments, policy actions, and institutional arrangements to enhancecross-border trade and economic opportunities for people living in the Eastern Corridor of South Asia, particularly in the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN). It is one of several trust funds that work with the World Bank to build greater regional connectivity as highlighted on the #OneSouthAsia website. The program, which started in 2015, closed in 2024, with some of the key results below:
Gender inclusion is a key focus of the program, ensuring that all women stakeholders benefit equitably from regional integration efforts. With SARTFP funding, the World Bank led analyses and technical assistance work to improve cross-border trade and enhance economic participation of women in trade, transport, connectivity and regional networks. The program fostered inclusive development of roads, rail, and inland waterway infrastructure that connects local communities to regional markets. With special attention to women-owned and micro businesses, it achieved a first in mainstreaming gender in regional projects and programs across the entire South Asian region, including in distant communities.
Read stories of impact on ways World Bank projects supported women across South Asia in various sectors like transport, trade, tourism, and power and utility — sectors which are traditionally considered male dominated.
Connecting Economies, Empowering Women: Regional Trade and Connectivity in South Asia
SARTFP Knowledge products and analysis reports, research papers, and other products:
- Engendering Access to STEM Education and Careers in South Asia (2023)
- Toward Safer and More Productive Migration for South Asia (Report, 2022)
- What do We Know About Interventions to Increase Women’s Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia?: Asset Transfers and Property Law (2022)
- What Do We Know about Interventions to Increase Women’ Economic Participation and Empowerment in South Asia? (2022)
- How Well do Economic Empowerment Efforts Prevent Child Marriage in South Asia (2022)
- How Well do Economic Empowerment Efforts Prevent Intimate Partner Violence in South Asia (2022)
- Girls’ Lived Experiences of School Closures: Insights from Interviews with Girls and Mothers in Punjab, Pakistan (2022)
- From Jobs to Careers : Apparel Exports and Career Paths for Women in Developing Countries (2021) I Read blog)
- Connecting to Thrive: Challenges and Opportunities of Transport Integration in Eastern South Asia (202,1 Read blog, Watch #OneSouthAsia Conversation, and read:event summary)
- Women's Participation, Constraints, and Opportunities for Trade in Bangladesh (2021)
- Women in Trade: A Spotlight on Eastern South Asia (2021 report)
- Strengthening Cross-Border Value Chains: An Opportunity for Bangladesh and India (2020 report)
- Pathways to Power: South Asia Region Baseline Assessment for Women Engineers in the Power Sector (2020)
- Short and Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Developing Country Exports: Evidence from Bangladesh (2020)
- Understanding the Role of Women Home-based Workers in Large Cardamom and Allo Value Chains in Nepal (2019)
- The South Asia Women in Power Sector Professional Network (2019 report)
- Economic Empowerment of Women Through Resilient Agriculture Supply Chains: A Geospatial and Temporal Analysis in Bangladesh (2019, working paper)
- Moving Forward: Logistics and Connectivity to Sustain Bangladesh's Success (2019 report)
- Transport Corridors and Their Wider Economic Benefits: A Quantitative Review of the Literature (2019 report)
- The Wider Economic Benefits of Transport Corridors: a Policy Framework and Illustrative Application to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (2019, working paper)
- Wider Economic Benefits of Transport Corridors : Evidence from International Development Organizations (2019 working paper)
- South Asia's Transport Corridors Can Become Engines of Growth (TF0A3512; 2019 video)
- The Web of Transport Corridors (free online class)
- Highways Can Do More for Women (2019, analysis)
- Voices to Choices: Bangladesh's Journey in Women's Economic Empowerment (2019 report)
- A Glass Half-Full: The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia (2018 report)
- A Glass Half-Full: The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia (2018 country summaries)
- The WEB of Transport Corridors in South Asia (2018 report)
- Getting to Work: Unlocking Women's Potential in Sri Lanka's Labor Force (2017 report)
- Women, Leadership, and the Economy in South Asia Conference (2016 report)
- A Spatial Database Model on Trade Liberalization and Female Employment (2016 research paper)
