Dr Purnima Menon
Senior Director for Food and Nutrition Policy and Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategies, IFPRI
Dr Purnima Menon is Senior Director for Food and Nutrition Policy. She also serves as Acting Director for Transformation Strategies (as of January 2025). In this dual role, Dr. Menon works closely with IFPRI’s Director General and IFPRI’s research unit directors to manage IFPRI’s global research strategy.
Dr Menon has extensive research experience in evaluating large-scale programs in nutrition, health systems, agriculture, gender, technology, and food systems for better nutrition. She, has published extensively in high-impact journals across disciplines and has co-authored and/or advised major global reports on nutrition and health. Her contributions to the field are reflected in over 200 peer-reviewed publications. Notably, she has played a pivotal role in agenda-setting academic collaborations, including the Lancet Series on Nutrition, Countdown to 2030, the Global Nutrition Report, and more.
Dr Menon collaborates widely across disciplines and invests deeply in research translation with policy communities. She has conceptualized and co-facilitated policy courses focused on nutrition, engaging a diverse audience of policymakers holding significant decision-making roles globally and within South Asia. She is a founding member of the Next Gen(d)eration Leadership Collective, an initiative to nurture effective leadership practices for a better-nourished world. In 2020, Dr. Menon received the prestigious Nevin Scrimshaw Mid-Career Award in Global Nutrition from the American Society for Nutrition, in recognition of her contributions to the field.
Dr Menon previously served as a Senior Research Fellow in IFPRI’s former Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division and a Research Associate at Cornell University. She holds a PhD in International Nutrition from Cornell University and an MS in Nutrition from the University of Delhi. Her research and engagement efforts have extended across diverse regions, reflecting her commitment to shaping a sustainable and nutritious future. She speaks many languages and has lived both in India and the United States. She is currently based in India with her husband, Jitendra Balakrishnan, and their daughter.
ABSTRACT
Resilience through equity, inclusion and community participation
Gender dynamics within food systems illustrate deep-seated structural inequalities that impede progress toward economic, social, nutritional, and environmental objectives. This presentation explores the progression from key concepts to measurement and solutions, underscoring the influence of gender across the food system and the strategies required to reshape these dynamics.
A range of methodologies now exist that be used to examine and highlight how gender affects food system transformation. Evidence-based solutions addressing structural inequality—such as cash transfers, community-based initiatives, and gender-sensitive financial inclusion in agriculture—are emerging in rural contexts and provide promising models of change.
Transformative laws, national programs, and policy frameworks play a critical role in reinforcing and scaling such community-driven efforts. Altogether, this presentation will build a conceptual, empirical, and rights-based argument for sustained investment in social transformation—through measurement, targeted solutions, and policy innovation—to advance global food system goals.