Speaker

Jyotsna PURI

Deputy Executive Director and Head of Evaluation - International Initiative of Impact Evaluation (3ie), New Delhi, India

Dr. Jyotsna (Jo) Puri is currently Deputy Executive Director and Head of Evaluation at the International Initiative of Impact Evaluation (3ie). Jo is also adjunct faculty at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York, where she teaches development evaluation. She is currently advising IFAD, WFP and AGRA on evidence related to agriculture, food security and nutrition. Jo leads 3ie sector based work on themes such as humanitarian assistance, climate change, behaviour change, agriculture, nutrition,  and environment.

Jo has more than 21 years of experience in policy research and development evaluation.  She has undertaken and led evaluation related work for UNDP, UNICEF, GEF and the MacArthur Foundation. Her research has focused on analyzing poverty impacts of policy and infrastructure investments in Asia and Latin America. As adviser at UNEP she has provided thematic and strategic advice on program development and engaging governments at various levels for effective delivery of outcomes for equitable, green growth transitions.

She is the lead author of a book on measuring and interpreting monitoring and evaluation indicators prepared for the Human Development Report Office and published by UNDP; Co-author of a book examining implications of Joint Implementation of Climate Change commitments for developing countries and is currently working on a book with two others on evaluations of climate change programmes.

Jo is a board member for the Community of Evaluators, South Asia and the Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative (HQAI). Jo’s academic qualifications include a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Resource Economics and a Masters in Development Economics

Publications:

• “Missing the forests for the trees? Assessing the use of impact evaluations in forestry programmes” in Challenges of climate change in sustainable development, Juha I Uitto and Rajib Shaw (editors), November 2015.
• “Embracing Complexity: Some experiences from Impact Evaluations of development programs” eValuation Matters, African Development Bank, June 2015.
• “Breaking through stagnation: testing innovations in engaging communities in increasing immunization coverage: A scoping study” 3ie scoping study, International Initiative for Impact evaluation (3ie), Sabarwal, S, R. Bhatia, B. Dhody, Suhashini Perumal, H. White and J. Puri, forthcoming October 2015.
• “What methods may be used in impact evaluations of humanitarian assistance?”  3ie working paper 23, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Puri, J, Aladysheva, A, Iversen, V, Ghorpade, Y and Brück, T, 2014.
• “Measuring Human Development: A Primer” Main author of treatise prepared for the NHDR team, HDRO, New York, 2006.