Sunil Siriwardena is the West Africa regional coordinator at the Fish Innovation Lab. He is responsible for providing support to Fish Innovation Lab activities in Nigeria, including meetings; capacity building; research activities; supporting data collection for monitoring, evaluation, and learning; maintaining relationships with in-country stakeholders; disseminating activity results to stakeholders; promoting activities and outcomes from the Fish Innovation Lab; and informing the Fish Innovation Lab about issues and priorities related to aquaculture and fisheries in Nigeria. He fulfills this role while working as the officer-in-charge of WorldFish in Nigeria.
Siriwardena joined WorldFish in August 2015 as the project manager in Sierra Leone. Currently working as the WorldFish officer-in-charge for Nigeria, Siriwardena is an aquaculture master's and PhD graduate from the Institute of Aquaculture and the University of Stirling, Scotland, and has 44 years of experience in aquaculture and inland fisheries research and development programs. Before joining WorldFish, Siriwardena was the international team leader and chief technical advisor for two Finnish government-funded Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations-executed aquaculture and fisheries development projects in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia for four and a half years. While working in Kyrgyzstan, he was awarded the Certificate of Honor by the Government of Kyrgyzstan for his contribution to the development of fisheries and aquaculture. He has also worked for research organizations including the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NACA) in Sri Lanka and the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling.
Additionally, Siriwardena has worked as an international consultant for FAO, United Nations Development Programme, NACA, and Stirling Aquaculture. Siriwardena has experience working in several countries, including Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Malawi, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Oman, Iraq, and Latvia.