Do they hear us? A practical framework for designing gender inclusive transport policies in south and southeast Asian countries

Providing safe and reliable public transport systems to women remains a significant challenge globally. In south and southeast Asian countries, national transport policies often lack a gender focus and thereby overlook women's travel needs. Without transport policies at a national level, practitioners are unable to design and implement transportation services which address women's travel needs. The main contribution of the study is through the development of a gender-inclusive policy framework to systematically evaluate levels of gender inclusion in national transport policies. The framework offers cross-comparison of countries and acts as a practical tool for policymakers, enabling them to assess strengths and weaknesses across various policy stages—From objective-setting to evaluation and monitoring plans. Further, the framework is applied to national transport policies from 12 countries in the south and southeast Asian region. The analysis reveals a concerning lack of gender inclusivity, with a very low average regional score of 31 %. Critical attributes such as gender-disaggregated travel data, evaluation plans and indicators for women's travel needs are greatly absent from almost all policies. Additionally, analysis was undertaken based on the countries' income level and women's transport demands. Findings show that 9 of the 12 countries need to greatly prioritise gender inclusion in their transport policies, given high transport demands. Overall, the findings show, through the application of the framework, areas of need and countries which are excelling, despite limited resources