Commonwealth Foundation re-launch

“Governance is too important and complex to be left to governments alone”

Vijay Krishnarayan is the Director of the Commonwealth Foundation. He has supported civil society organisations in the United Kingdom, Caribbean and the wider Commonwealth over the last 25 years.

A land-use planner by training, he has a special interest in the relationship between development and the environment. Before joining the Commonwealth Foundation in 2006, he spent over a decade in the Caribbean, most notably as Managing Partner for the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), one of the region’s sustainable development think tanks.

From 2006-2012 he served as the Foundation’s Deputy Director. In this capacity he had oversight of the Foundation’s grants and programmes and helped build the organisation’s communications capacity. He led the Foundation’s coordination of civil society inputs to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings in 2007 (Kampala), 2009 (Port of Spain) and 2011 (Perth). He was also at the forefront of Commonwealth organisations’ work to re-engage with their counterparts in Zimbabwean civil society.