Our Team

Chairman - Avanthi Jayathilake is an Institutionalization Specialist, brings in much invaluable expertise and professionalism gained through his over 30 year career experience in public, private and international organizations. He started as a SLAS Officer in 1979 and served in many important positions in government agencies including Ministry of Planning, CEA and Ministry of Environment. In 1991 he was employed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as the Program Specialist and was later appointed as the Mission Environmental Officer to look after the environmental aspects of all projects supported by the USAID. He has undertaken many consultancy assignments in environmental management and institutional development in many countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Oman and Canada. He currently heads the EML Consultants; a leading consultancy firm providing services in Sri Lanka and in the region.

Managing Director - Manitha Weerasuriya PhD, has extensive experience in project management and governance related training and capacity building projects conducted through the USAID funded TALG and GUGSA programs since 2004. Formerly CEO of EML Consultants, CEO of Nikini Automation Systems (Pvt) Ltd.(Sri Lanka), Lecturer at the City University of New York and Assistant Soil Chemist at the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka. Dr Weerasuriya obtained his Ph.D. in Environmental Biology and Master of Philosophy Degrees in Biology from the City University of New York. He has also obtained his masters in Botany and BSC in Agriculture from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He has received several Awards, Fellowships and Grants during the academic career. He joined EML as a Project Management Specialist in 2003.

Senior Consultant - Research - A P Dainis, with a career span of over 35 years mainly related to public administration and local governance, Mr. Dainis is extremely well experienced and fully conversant with the central and local governance mechanism in Sri Lanka. Being a member of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS), he has worked in many ministries and departments related to local governance. Mr Dainis has also been an advisor on local governments in Sri Lanka to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and has served as institutional development specialist/ consultant for several projects funded by major donor agencies including ILO, GTZ and ADB. He has also served as director for many government organizations, and engaged in the formulation and implementation of program for the advancement of management capabilities of local authorities.

Senior Consultant - Local Governance – D. P Hettiarachchi, the former Additional Secretary in charge of local government and provincial councils divisions of the ministry of local government and provincial councils. He is a senior officer of the Sri Lanka administrative service having over thirty years of experience in the fields of local government in Sri Lanka. He is a graduate of the Vidyalankara University, Keleniya and followed post-graduate study programme on local government management in University of Birmingham and Human resource management programme in university of Manchester UK.
Mr. Hettiarachchi having extensive experience in various senior management positions in leading local authorities, Provincial councils and in line ministry of the government. He has represented various international forums, conference, Seminars etc. in many occasions and has studied local government management systems in South Africa, India, USA, Japan, Thailand, Cuba, Philippines, UK, Italy Canada, China and Netherlands.
His Specialize areas are local government law, Subsidiary laws, Capacity building, Municipal waste management, and local government policy formulation. Mr. Hettiarachchi serves as a guest lecture of University of Colombo, University of Moratuwa and University of Sri Jayawardanapura. Further he is functioning as the coordinator for number of local government projects.

Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist - Thilak Hewawasam has over 25 years of experience in project development, management, monitoring & evaluation and review in the field of housing, resettlement, social justice and upgrading of underserved settlements, water & sanitation, environment, pro-poor development and institutional capacity building at National, Provincial and Local Government levels in Sri Lanka as well as in South and East Asian and African region. Mr. Hewawasam holds a Master of Science degree in Regional Development Planning from the University of Wales, UK (1987); a Post-Graduate Diploma in Land Settlement and Development from the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka (1977); and a Bachelor of Arts(Hons) in Geography from the University of Ceylon in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (1968). He obtained a special professional training on Results Based Management. Mr. Hewawasam possess a long experience in monitoring and evaluation of donor funded projects and national and local government programs holding senior positions in the public sector in the field of Environment, Local Government, Housing, Water Supply, Urban Development. He recently worked as the Senior Project Team Leader of the CIDA Tsunami Results Monitoring Project (TRMP). Since 2006, he has involved in carrying out an extensive evaluation and review of water and sanitation sector in Sri Lanka as Senior Water and Sanitation Advisor of USAID Environmental Cooperation – Asia (Eco - Asia) Program in Sri Lanka.

Socio Economist - Fuard Marikar PhD has over 38 years of work experience in public, private and international organizations. He has a BSc Degree in Agricuture from Peradeniya Univervisity, a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from Stanford University, USA and a PhD Degree in Natural Resource and Environmental Economics from Colorado State University, USA. He has over 20 years of experience working for the state sector, including the Ministry of National Planning and Ministry of Lands and Land Development, where he was the Director of the Planning Division with overall responsibility for planning and policy formulation in the agricultural and natural resources sector including planning in agriculture, plantation, livestock, research and extension, environment management, irrigation, land development and settlement, land reclamation, forestry, wild life, land use planning, and watershed management. He has experience in planning, budgeting, project formulation, coordination of implementation and monitoring and evaluation in the state sector. He has also worked as a consultant for over 10 years for the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in areas such as irrigation management, water resources planning, poverty assessments, irrigation project impact assessments, conduct of socio economic surveys and research. He has also worked for local and foreign private sector consulting firms, including EML, ECL, RDC, TEAMS, GTZ, Skanska, DHV, Norconsult, IPE, well as for international agencies such as the World Bank, ADB, CIDA, USAID, JICA, CARE, Red Cross, UNDP, FAO and ILO, and completed over 50 assignments in disaster management, poverty assessments, socio economic and other surveys, project impact assessments, project formulation, monitoring and evaluation, EIAs, and other environmental assignments. He has completed assignments/studies/tours in Philippines, Canada, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

Manager Special Projects - P Samarnayake, has wide experience, having worked in the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka [RRISL] for over 36 years in the field of Plant Breeding and Extension. As regional Advisory Officer of the RRISL he was involved in Administration and Project Management. He was responsible for the implementation of the World Bank funded Smallholder Rubber Rehabilitation Project [SRRP] from 1982 -1994 and coordinated an Integrated Rural Development Project [FINNIDA] funded by Finland involving Situation Analysis Strategy formulating, Monitoring and Project Evaluation.Mr. Samaranayake has utilized his proficiency in coordinating various projects in the private sector after his retirement. Some of the projects he handled were Rights of migrants Works and Trafficking in Persons, funded by the American Solidarity Centre and USAID, Social Mobilisation and Establishing Child Protection Societies to combat Child Labour, in the plantation sector, funded by ILO and, UN funded Tsunami Rehabilitation and HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes.He is presently coordinating the 2nd phase of an ongoing project ‘Upliftment of the Living and Social Conditions of Plantation Workers and their Families’, supported by a donor agency [FAP], in collaboration with PADEM an INGO in France,.Mr. Samaranayake holds a Diploma in Plant Breeding at the University of Wageninen, The Netherlands, International Training Course on Extension Training and Communication at the University of Philippines and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Biology [London].

General Manager - Ismail Azeez has more than 14 years’ experience in both private sectors and with non-government organization and has held positions as Lecturer, Software Engineer, Manager Sales/Marketing Project Manager, Program Manager and Executive Director. Azeez has undertaken various training and consultancy assignment for Author Anderson LLP (A project of Central Bank), GTZ REPSI/ GTZ ProMis, EU, Sanasa Development Bank, Asia Foundation, South Eastern University, District Secretariat of Batticaloa, USAID etc. He has trained more than 15000 individuals on different aspects. Azeez’s interest includes youth empowerment, community development, education, project management, enterprise development and organizational development. Azeez has a Masters in Business Administration and has earned BA from OUSL, Int’l Dip in Computer Studies (NCC-UK), ACS, Dip in Youth Development Work (CYP) and is certified trainer for CGAP and Business Edge™

Key Contacts

Environmental & Research:

Dr. Manitha Weerasuriya (MD)
0777698962
manitha@iidt.org

Enterprise Management / Business Edge™
Ismail A Azeez (GM) - 0773451544
azeez@iidt.org

General Training / Projects
Kanchana – 077 010 2830
kanchana@iidt.org
Sumedha– 077 4047309
sumedha@iidt.org

 

International Institute of Development Training

No. 6/10 Rajamaha Vihara Lane
Rajamahavihara Mawatha
Pitakotte, Kotte
Tel: + 94 1 4379114
Fax: + 94 1 2502880

Email: info@iidt.org
Web: www.iidt.org