Intraregional trade in South Asia could be worth $67 billion rather than $23 billion. This gap between potential and actual trade leads to a signficiant loss to consumers, firms and exporters, in…

The World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, IDA has been a reliable partner in South Asia for more than six decades and contributed to a sharp decline in poverty in the region. Yet, for…

Ranking third globally, South Asia generates a staggering 334 million metric tons of solid waste every year, and most of it is plastic that ends up in the ocean. But the region is also at the…

World Bank South Asia Region team provides a platform for conversations about regional connectivity and helps find common ground between country priorities and regional integration.

South Asia is home to some of the world’s countries most vulnerable to climate change. In the past decade alone, nearly 700 million people—half of the region’s population—were affected by one or…

As Bhutan has urbanized, demand for land and housing has intensified. The limited amount of urban land and the high cost of construction have made adequate housing an increasingly large expense…

Fully applying the principles of sustainable forest management to Bhutan’s production forests and modernizing the sector could significantly increase productivity and improve ecological resilience…

Building up a common regional brand identity is paramount to the success of Himalayan large cardamom, and it can also help secure the livelihoods of the women home-based workers who nurture and…

It is undeniable that progress has been made in reducing extreme poverty over the last quarter century—from 36 percent of the world population in 1990 to an estimated 8.6 percent in 2018—and that…

Bhutan's burgeoning services sector clusters mostly around cities, making it the fastest urbanizing country in South Asia.