Ms. Jyotsna (Jo) Puri is serving as Director, Policy and Programme Division.
She is an expert in international development, climate finance and impact evaluation, with close to 27 years of experience in the multilateral/development sector.
In her role, she leads UNEP’s strategic and programmatic direction, ensuring coherence across the organization and alignment with global environmental priorities. Her leadership spans strategic planning, project quality assurance, performance monitoring, gender mainstreaming, and engagement with global funds. She fosters collaboration across divisions and with UN partners to ensure UNEP’s work is inclusive, impactful, and results-driven. She also oversees the translation of UNEP’s vision into measurable outcomes, driving meaningful environmental change at both global and national levels.
Jo was the associate vice president of strategy and knowledge at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) until August 2024. In this role, she spearheaded the work on the technical quality of IFAD operations and investments at the country and international levels. She led a team of more than 200 across IFAD offices. As Strategic Advisor to the President of IFAD, she led the development of IFAD’s strategy (2025–2031) and its flagship Rural Development Report, which focuses on financing for transforming rural areas. Between 2017 and 2020, Jo was the inaugural head of the Independent Evaluation Office of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). She oversaw the First Performance Review of the GCF, which provided the blueprint for the GCF’s new strategy. She also initiated the data and behavioral science labs at the GCF Independent Evaluation Unit. She 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 also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where she teaches development effectiveness. She is also a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC. She has played an instrumental role in conceptualizing resilience credits that provide a model for incentivizing financing for climate adaptation. She has contributed to several high-level policy groups within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Environment Programme. She has also authored numerous academic articles and reports on climate resilience, impact evaluation, and innovation. She was the co-chair of the International Land Coalition (2022–2024) and is also on the board of Innovations for Policy Action (unpaid). Jo has 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.
Staff Position Level: D2
Region: Asia Pacific
