Locating Women’s Right to Food in Development Work: A Critical Examination of the Asian Development Bank’s Policies and Practices

This thesis critically examines the degree to which the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) operations are compatible with, and informed by, women’s right to food. ADB’s policies and practices are analysed using the right to food framework, as informed by a substantive equality perspective conceptualised based on contemporary articulations of equality under international law. ADB’s food security policies and projects—as demonstrated by a case study in the Philippines—do not adequately interrogate and address structural gender inequalities that limit women’s access to food. The thesis demonstrates why it is imperative that ADB’s operations be underpinned by human rights framework.