Bishnodat Persaud

Prof The Honourable Bishnodat Persaud CHB,Ph.D,FRSA (1933 – 24 July 2016) was an Guyanese economist who served as Alcan Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies, and Director of Economic Affairs, Commonwealth Secretariat. In November 2013 he was awarded The Companion of Honour in the Barbados Independence Day Honours List for distinguished national achievement and merit for his outstanding contribution to the regional and international public service.

Persaud spent eighteen years in the service of the Commonwealth Secretariat (1974–1992); for the last eleven, he was Director and Head of the Economic Affairs Division. Before joining the Commonwealth Secretariat, he was Research Fellow at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Barbados, and served for a period as head of the Eastern Caribbean branch of the Institute of Social and Economic Research in Barbados.

Persaud was born in Guyana. He gained a first degree in Economics from Queens University, Belfast and a Ph.D in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading, UK . He served as external examiner for post-graduate degrees for Universities in the UK and Malta. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK. Persaud was the husband of award-winning Caribbean novelist Lakshmi Persaud. They had three sons, psychiatrist Rajendra Persaud, financial economist Professor Avinash Persaud, and Sharda Dean. He died on 24 July 2016 at the age of 82.

Persaud served as Director and Head of the Economic Affairs Division from 1982 to 1992. This was the largest technical division of the Secretariat, concerned with trade, finance, commodities and Development. As Head he was Secretary to the annual meetings of Commonwealth Finance Ministers and co-Secretary to the biennial Meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) He headed also the Secretariat support team for over a dozen Commonwealth Expert Groups. While at the Secretariat, he served as chief economic adviser to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, providing technical support at high-level international commissions and committees, including the Brandt Report, by the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, chaired by Willy Brandt in 1980, and South Commissions and the UN Committee on Development Policy, incl. list of previous and current CDP members.

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