Dr. Jyotsna (Jo) Puri is an expert in climate finance, international development and impact evaluation, with close to 30 years of experience in the multilateral sector. Till August 2024, Jo was the associate vice president of strategy and knowledge at IFAD. In this role, she spearheaded the work on technical quality of IFAD operations and investments in more than 80 developing countries and with international treaties and agreements while leading a 200 person global team. She was also the co-chair of the International Land Coalition (2022-4). Most recently she was Strategic Advisor to the President of IFAD where she led the development of IFAD’s strategy (2025-2031) and its flagship Rural Development Report focusing on financing rural transformation.
Between 2017-20, Jo was the inaugural Head of the Independent Evaluation Office of the Green Climate Fund. She oversaw the First Performance Review of the GCF, that provided the blueprint for GCF’s new strategy. She also initiated the Data Lab and the Behavioral Science lab at the IEU. Jo has advocated for evidence-driven policies and programmes at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) where she was the deputy executive director and head of evaluation. Jo is currently also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where she teaches development effectiveness and is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC.
Jo has played an instrumental in conceptualising resilience credits that provides a model for incentivizing financing for climate adaptation. She has contributed to several high-level policy groups within the UNFCCC and UNEP. Dr. Puri has authored numerous academic articles and reports on climate resilience, impact evaluation, and innovation. She also serves on the board of Innovations for Policy Action (unpaid). Dr. Puri holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Agriculture and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, USA, and an M.A. in Development Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, India.
Starting mid-april 2025, Jo will be Director Policy and Programmes at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in Nairobi, where she will lead a team of approximately 60 people to develop strategy, ensure quality of UNEP operations, lead country level support and coordinate all programming with the climate vertical funds, while ensuring consistency and results reporting across UNEP.