Vitus Fernando

Vitus started his career in with the senior civil service of Sri Lanka in 1972, and held senior positions with the Ministries of Planning, Economic Affairs and Fisheries. He worked on policy, technical and institutional issues related to national poverty alleviation, income generation, and food security programmes related to Forestry and fisheries as well as in defining investment priorities for the national fisheries and forest development programme.

From 1979 as a Capital Development Officer at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), he was responsible for a wide variety of strategic project design and operational functions, financed under the United States bilateral assistance portfolio to Sri Lanka.

In 1985, Vitus was invited to join the Senior Staff of the Bruntland Commission (WCED) in Geneva, and worked on the elaboration of the Commission’s position on Sustainable Development and also coordinated the work of the technical panels on International Economic Cooperation and Development Assistance.

In 1986, he joined the World Conservation Union, Switzerland, as the Head of the Asia/Pacific Programme where he established and managed an extensive field operation in 18 countries aimed at the issue of environment-development interface and introduced wide-ranging institutional development strategies.

From 1997 to 1999, he worked as Policy Advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka under a World Bank Institutional Strengthening Programme, focused on National Environmental Agencies. He led a process to revise the mandate of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment and this resulted in the introduction of new institutional structures to motivate and encourage teamwork, promote programme coherence and maintain institutional cohesiveness.

From 1999 to 2003 he was attached to the Office of the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva. During this period he lead a team of Consultants undertaking an institutional review of the WMO Secretariat to improve its operational efficiency and effectiveness that led to a series of strategic institutional reforms at the Secretariat including mechanisms for management co-ordination and program integration. Mr. Fernando subsequently was appointed as the Director of Implementation to supervise the implementation of the review recommendations.

In 2003, Vitus  was appointed as a member of the high level, Compliance Review Panel of the Asian Development Bank in Manila Philippines by the Board of Directors, to investigate alleged violations of ADB social and environmental policy safeguards in the design and implementation of ADB financed projects and programs and to recommend remedial actions to improve compliance.

Vitus holds a Bachelors degree in Natural Sciences from Sri Lanka and a Masters degree in Environmental Planning from the United Kingdom, complemented by advanced training in Development Economics, Project Cycle Operations, Strategic Planning and Public Policy Administration.