Deadline: 04-Oct-22
The World Bank South Asia Gender Innovation Lab is pleased to announce a call for proposals under its Innovation Fellowship Program. Proposals are invited for research aimed at generating evidence and learning on what works to promote economic opportunities for women and mitigate risk factors in the context of regional integration and trade.
This call is for any researcher, including PhD students and academics, based in South Asia (i.e., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives).
The World Bank’s South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL) promotes evidence-based solutions to reduce gender gaps and advance women’s economic empowerment (WEE) across South Asian countries. This call for proposals is launched under SAR GIL’s Women’s Economic Empowerment in South Asia (WEESA) Community of Practice, a virtual platform dedicated to systematic learning, knowledge exchange and networking to facilitate regional cooperation, dialogue, and capacity building on WEE in the South Asian Region.
WEESA’s Innovation Fellowship Program promotes research and collaboration on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in South Asia. Under this call for proposals, they welcome submissions on topics at the intersection of regional integration, trade, and gender equality.
Thematic focus
- Effects of regional integration on women’s economic empowerment (e.g., through trade, tourism, road, rail or inland waterway infrastructure, migration, or information, communications, and technology).
- How to promote women entrepreneurs’ access to regional and global value chains, capital, and links to domestic and regional markets.
- The role of migration in shaping gender roles, attitudes, and intra-household dynamics.
- Risks of regional integration for women and girls (e.g., exposure to gender-based violence or other economic and social drivers of gender inequality and exclusion).
Eligibility Criteria
- Successful proposals will either use data from multiple countries in the region, or focus specifically on Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and/or Nepal. The research is expected to be original and rigorous. New research ideas that are possible to complete within the specified timeframe are welcome to apply.
- Ongoing research projects that are already in progress and well-aligned to the thematic focus of this call are also eligible to apply for additional research support offered as part of this call. Researcher author(s) must ensure that the proposed research does not already exist and is substantively different from existing work.
Criteria
- Researchers must be based in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, or the Maldives.
- The proposed research may be cross-country in scope but must include a focus on at least one of the four focus countries i.e., Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, or Nepal.
- Ongoing research projects that are already in progress and well-aligned to the thematic focus of this call are eligible to apply for additional research support offered as part of this call.
- Research plans should be realistic (i.e., able to meet the project objectives within the time frame) and the meet the expected timeline of deliverables (see proposal template).
- Preference will be given to researchers who collaborate with peers in other countries in the South Asia region and submit a joint proposal.
- Female researchers are especially encouraged to apply. In case of applications with multiple collaborators a gender-balanced team composition is desirable.
- Only complete proposals will be considered for evaluation.
For more information, visit Innovation Fellowship Program.
For more information, visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2022/08/26/call-for-proposal-for-regional-integration-trade-and-womens-economic-empowerment-in-south-asia#2
