About Us

SAARC stands for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation — a regional organization of 8 South Asian countries. Member countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, and Afghanistan

To address poverty in the region, a commission called ISACPA (Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation) was formed. On this commission's recommendation, the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) was established in 2010 at the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu, Bhutan. Its headquarters is in Thimphu, with an approved capital of US$1.5 billion.

Home-based women workers across South Asia worked in the informal sector and had no real opportunity to sell their products in the market. To solve this, in 2008 HomeNet South Asia and India's SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association) jointly designed the SABAH project, which SDF agreed to fund. As implementation began, the women workers recognized the need for a formal business organization — and out of that need, SABAH (SAARC Business Association of Home-Based Workers) was formed

The full project name was "Strengthening Livelihood Initiative for Home-Based Workers in the SAARC Region," run on a total budget of US$21.07 million. It ran for 6 years, from 2009 to 2015, and was SDF's first pilot project under the Social Window.

SABAH is now established in all 7 SAARC countries including ✅India ✅Bangladesh ✅Nepal ✅Pakistan ✅Sri Lanka ✅Bhutan ✅Maldives ✅Afghanistan

According to official documents, SABAH Bangladesh was registered under the Companies Act in 2010 and began operations across 28 districts. With SDF funding, a 6-storey building was purchased in Mirpur, Dhaka, which now houses the Trade Facilitation Center (TFC).

After SDF's funded project concluded in 2015, SABAH has operated as a self-reliant institution across South Asia since 2016

SABAH's project was successful enough that IIM Bangalore (rated India's top business school), commissioned by SDF, produced a case study on it — with plans to incorporate it into MBA coursework across South Asia.