Rahul Bhatnagar

Technical lead for Sri Lanka's National Export Development Plan (NEDP) 2025–2029, financed by ADB and coordinated by Sri Lanka's Export Development Board. Engaged over 100 public, private and civil-society stakeholders through a mixed-method approach to develop a five-year plan of action. Integrated digital trade and trade-facilitation digitalisation as cross-cutting themes, including measures to modernise border procedures via the national single window and to develop digital one-stop-shops for SME development and investment promotion. Currently conceptualising and supporting the deployment of a governance framework and implementation-management mechanism to provide clear guardrails for NEDP implementation.

Led an independent, Article 28– mandated evaluation of Uganda's AfCFTA implementation over the first five years, benchmarking legal, policy and institutional frameworks against AfCFTA obligations and assessing progress on various protocols, including on digital trade. UNDP funded evaluation assessed the readiness and capacity of core implementing institutions, drawing on extensive stakeholder consultations, data analysis and field missions, and designed a prioritised 24-month AfCFTA Implementation Acceleration Plan that sequences policy and regulatory reforms, institutional strengthening, and trade facilitation/digitalisation measures, alongside monitoring and evaluation arrangements.

• - Pillar II on Trade Competitiveness: Spearheading efforts to strengthen trade support functions, including trade finance, export promotion, MSME development, and trade facilitation, to enhance Cambodia's ability to compete in regional and global markets.

• - Pillar V on Targeted Sector Development: Driving focused interventions for priority value chains with high export potential, aligning strategies with market opportunities to maximize Cambodia's country's export performance.