India’s North-East Region (NER) – comprising ‘the seven sister’ states plus the small state of Sikkim - is a uniquely rich and complex tapestry of social, cultural, natural resource and biological diversity. This remote region, of poor connectivity but with an eager and literate workforce[1], is increasingly being transformed into a key frontier under India’s ‘Act East’ policy and its ...
Women in rural Bangladesh have made great strides in breaking through employment barriers in areas such as agriculture and garment manufacturing. However, there contributions are not always recorded and there remain spaces such as rural markets that are male-dominated. How can these challenges be addressed? Photo Credit: Lupita Huq How does a poor woman in rural Bangladesh make use ...
On February 1st, India’s finance minister presented the Union Budget for 2017-2018, and announced the government’s plan to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025. This is a welcome move. While ridding people of the burden of any disease is a worthy goal by itself, TB elimination provides perhaps one of the strongest cases for public intervention from an economic point ...
Photo Credit: Mabruk Kabir Fatima brimmed with optimism. The 19-year-old recently established a poultry enterprise with the support of a micro-grant, and was thrilled at the prospect of financial independence. “After my family moved from Pakistan, I had few options for work,” she said from her home in the Paghman district in the outskirts of Kabul. “The grant not ...
Considering Bangladesh’s lack of development and a predominantly rural context, it would have been difficult to imagine even a few years ago that an elderly widow living in a remote corner of this impoverished South Asian country could be receiving money from her son living in Dubai sitting right at home or making petty payments through her mobile phone. ...
The suburban train system in Mumbai is used by millions of women and men everyday, who rely on safe transport to access education and job opportunities. Last week, I took a journey on Mumbai’s suburban train system, which carries a staggering 8 million women and men, equivalent to the entire population of Switzerland, every day to where they live, ...
The Government of Nepal is working to incorporate gender equality in all its development policies and programs. Credit: Bijay Gajmer/World Bank Today marks International Women’s Day throughout the world. Here in Nepal, it is a joyful tribute to the fact that the country boasts three women holding key leadership positions in the country – Bidhya Devi Bhandari as President, ...
The National Solidarity Programme has achieved widespread involvement of women in rural Afghanistan’s community decision through the Community Development Councils (CDCs). Credit: Rumi Consultancy / World Bank Women and men agree on Afghanistan’s development priorities according to the findings of the country’s most recent Living Conditions Survey of 2013/14 where more than 20,000 Afghan women and men were separately ...
Photo Credit: Rumi Consultancy I am a messenger between local farmers and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL). That’s my role as provincial coordinator of the National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) for Daykundi Province. I lead agricultural trainings, visit farmers, oversee all project activities in the province—there is no typical day. I’m constantly working to understand ...
How Can South Asia’s Youth Plug into Digital Jobs of the Future? Over the past several years, innovations in information and communication technologies have fundamentally changed the nature of work. This has created new opportunities in digital employment for workers and employers in South Asia and beyond. So what are the pathways to this new employment? During a recent ...
How Can South Asia’s Youth Plug into Digital Jobs of the Future? Over the past several years, innovations in information and communication technologies have fundamentally changed the nature of work. This has created new opportunities in digital employment for workers and employers in South Asia and beyond. So what are the pathways to this new employment? During a recent ...
Soybean farmers discuss best practices that can leverage improvement of food and nutrition security in Madhya Pradesh. The state of Madhya Pradesh in India is largely vegetarian with limited consumption of eggs and meat. While these dietary preferences are commonplace in other Indian states, Madhya Pradesh is facing a protein deficiency epidemic which threatens the long term health of ...
Students from Nepal are in their national dress and preparing for their cultural show at the 13th South Asia Economics Students' Meet (SAESM) held in Kathmandu, Nepal last week. SAESM brought together top economic undergraduates to share research, learn from one another, experience a neighboring country, and make friends. Last November, when the SAARC summit that was supposed to be ...
Former refugee Jeyaranjini discusses community initiatives with her local project officer in northern Sri Lanka. Photo Credit: Joe Qian/World Bank Jeyaranjini lives near Kilinochchi in Northern Sri Lanka with her husband and daughter. They have been rebuilding their lives through the North East Local Services Improvement Project (NELSIP), which uses a Community Driven Development (CDD) approach to tailor projects based ...
The Tarbela dam in Pakistan staddles the Indus River. The earth- and rock-filled structure is almost 500 feet high and 9,000 feet wide. Credit: World Bank My visit to Pakistan began last week at the enormous Tarbela dam. Straddling the Indus River, this earth- and rock-filled structure is almost 500 feet high and 9,000 feet wide. It is ...
Men from the Pokri Dangra community working on the power tiller track. (Credit: RRCDP project) For remote rural communities in mountainous Bhutan, survival hinges upon access to roads and markets. Since 2003, the Royal Government has built over 1,500 kilometers of farm roads and narrower, lower-cost “power tiller tracks” to help communities, which subsist mostly on agriculture, connect to the ...
Not long ago, fifty three year old Parvati Amma was told that she was too old to train as a mason. But that didn’t deter this feisty lady. She took the rejection as a challenge and went on to ace the class. Parvati Amma comes from Pulkattai village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu where the Tamil Nadu ...
Young girls in a school in India. Credit: World Bank I was in India a few weeks ago and had the chance to visit some rural schools in Uttar Pradesh. When I was there, I met a group of adolescent girls who could potentially help close the country’s gender gap. These girls board at school, where they get ...
Photo: National Horticulture and livestock project “… If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million …” Agriculture Sector: Creating Opportunities for Women In Afghanistan, agriculture continues to be the backbone of the rural ...
