Akil Crichlow is an advocate for sustainable development, with a focus on strategic event design and delivery, communications, and stakeholder engagement. Akil has supported programmes in the climate and water space in delivering impactful discourse that connect people across disciplines, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration.
Before joining the Association, from 2023 to 2025, he served as an Assistant Research Officer in the Department of Climate Change at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. He contributed to the Commonwealth Living Lands Charter Programme, a new initiative developed to assist member states in achieving joint action on climate, biodiversity, and land through the three Rio Conventions. Akil supported the development of this programme by organising events, participating in international forums, executing strategic communications and enhancing brand visibility. He also played a key role in facilitating stakeholder engagement with member states and partner institutions and providing research support to country-led thematic working groups.
In 2024, he was also appointed to the Young Scientific Programme Committee for World Water Week, organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). In this capacity, he collaborated with fellow Scientific Programme Committee members and co-convenors to develop one of the SIWI seminar series. His contributions included managing the event’s logistics and helping to shape structure and thematic outline.
Prior to these roles, Akil amassed diverse experience in the water sector. In 2022, he completed an internship at the Global Water Partnership (GWP) Organisation in Sweden, where he engaged in learning and knowledge management initiatives, supporting the GWP IWRM Action Hub, a core tool in GWP’s learning agenda. Subsequently, he worked with the Secretariat of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), contributing to coordination efforts for the 2022 Caribbean Ministers’ High-Level Forums on water and waste management during the CWWA Annual Conference and Exhibition.
Akil, a Trinidad and Tobago national, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with a minor concentration in Natural Resources Management from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. He also achieved a Master of Science in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development. His graduate research examined nature-based solutions for managing soil moisture regimes in heavy clay soils, a topic influenced by conditions in his island state prone to land instability.
