🧩 The Challenge
Women workers make up more than half of Bangladesh’s overall labor force. The garment trade, for example, relies heavily on women’s work, and as in many other jobs women are heavily concentrated in the lower value, lower-compensated end of the supply chain. This is particularly evident in border regions, where women are the primary laborers in construction materials, agriculture, and light manufacturing.
Women face challenges when they trade across borders. They often encounter harassment, unwarranted taxes, and poor working conditions. Many are compelled to make informal payments or risk having their merchandise seized. Poor infrastructure at border stations, slow and inadequate transport logistics, and complex and time-consuming red tape push women traders toward informal channels, where the barriers they face are even higher. All of this is made harder by the fact that only 20% of women have access to credit, compared to 40% of men, and women-owned businesses represent only 10% of all enterprises.
The digital divide is yet another obstacle; women have limited access to the technology essential for modern trade. Also, a lack of data on women traders and their needs means there is little information on which to design policies.
🛠️ The Intervention
The World Bank’s Bangladesh Regional Connectivity Project (P154580) takes a comprehensive look at improving regional trade. It also addresses disparities between women and men in trade by removing the bottlenecks facing women. The project helps women develop new skills which include training them to connect to global value chains, building new infrastructure at trading points, improving temperature-regulated transport and storage to reduce crop spoilage, and simplifying trade rules. The project's beneficiaries include traders, producers, and transport providers.
Networking is another important part of the project. The Women Entrepreneurs Networking Platform, developed by the Ministry of Commerce (Government of India), serves as both a marketplace and a networking hub, a place for women entrepreneurs to both showcase their products and get access to trade information. This digital platform is designed to be user-friendly and lets entrepreneurs connect across industries. Its messaging system makes it easy to communicate with domestic and international partners.
🏗️ Implementation Challenges and Successes
The project has achieved notable successes in its pilot training programs in cut flower production and agricultural processing. It is launching a third program to train women in information and communications technology. WENP was established through a collaborative two-year development initiative. With support from industry associations, private sector partners, and think tanks, the program led comprehensive data collection efforts covering 25,000 women entrepreneurs between 2021 and 2023.
💡 Lessons Learned
- Integrating Women in Trade: The project shows that addressing disparities between women and men in trade requires a comprehensive approach. The Women Entrepreneurs Networking Platform, for example, grew out of a two-year process and was supported by industry associations, the private sector, and think tanks.
- Sector-Specific Training Programs: The pilot training programs are a successful model for boosting women's participation in trade. Targeting specific industries, like flowers, has offered women, especially those who were stuck in low-value work, a chance at upward mobility.
- Collaboration Across Agencies: The project's success in coordinating across multiple agencies demonstrates the importance of institutional collaboration in tackling gaps between women and men. This approach proves valuable in addressing complex challenges such as infrastructure, procedural barriers, and limited access to resources.
📌 Conclusion
The Bangladesh Regional Connectivity Project 1 presents potential paths to address barriers to women's economic participation. The project's remarkable current network of 32,000 female entrepreneurs illustrates how well-designed tools can integrate women into formal trade networks. The project provides a replicable model for moving women into better opportunities for trade. This case study from Bangladesh offers valuable insights for similar plans to change dynamics in trade so as to create pathways for women's economic empowerment.
Note: Nusrat Nahid Babi and Amali Rajapaksa (World Bank Senior Transport Specialists) reviewed and cleared this case study.