E-commerce can become a driver of growth across South Asia and boost trade between the region’s countries, but its potential remains largely untapped.

Viviana Perego, Sanjay Kathuria, Arti Grover, Aaditya Mattoo, Pritam Banerjee |

India can unleash the economic potential of its North Eastern Region (NER) by focusing on reforms that will boost the region’s participation in regional and Global Value Chains.

Priya Mathur, Sanjay Kathuria |

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…

Sanjay Kathuria, Nadeem Rizwan |

Dhaka accounts for one-third of the Bangladesh’s total population, one-fifth of national GDP and one-third of all jobs. It is imperative for the country to translate the economic density of Dhaka…

John Roome, Annie Gapihan, Hyunji Lee |

The outsized risk of harassment that women face daily, in turn, affects their decisions whether to take a bus or even whether to get a job.

Andy Kotikula, Diana J. Arango |

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…

Hartwig Schafer |

In South Asia, higher exports can translate into benefits for workers such as rising wages and a shift to formal employment. But these gains benefit some groups more than others, notably male,…

Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, Diego Cardozo Medeiros, Deeksha Kokas |

The World Bank, together with DFID Nepal, has launched a Train the Trainers (T-O-T) program. Last summer, 82 participants took a 40-hour face-to-face training—the first phase of the program—to…

Nkechi Coker, Liza Maharjan |

A recent study examines regional and urban-rural patterns of undernutrition and overnutrition, dietary diversity, household food security, and the growth dynamics of adolescent girls aged 10 to 19…

Ziauddin Hyder |