Our Team in Belize

Mr. Salazar brings more than 24 years of international experience in programme management poverty reduction, governance, disaster risk reduction and crisis prevention and recovery, including in complex post crisis situations.

Prior to his appointment as Resident Coordinator, he served as Chief of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) at the Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean in Panama. There, he led the regional team providing policy and technical advice to prevent the impact of disasters in 35 countries and small island development states highly exposed to social crisis and disaster risks. His responsibilities involved fostering high level political consultation processes leading to national strategies for resilience building in coherence with the 2030 agenda, the Sendai Framework and the Paris Agreement. He has experience in transboundary programmes and partnerships for resilience building with financing institutions, science and technology, civil society organisations, women and youth, people living with disabilities and building networks for the engagement of the private sector.

Previously to UNDRR, Mr. Salazar also worked in UNDP Peru (1997-2010), where he was the Cluster Manager in the area of Poverty Reduction and Crisis Prevention and Recovery, providing policy and technical support in disaster risk reduction recovery processes, where he set up strategies, effective teams and project structures to deliver results. He was also Chair of the UN Emergency Technical Team from 2003 to 2010 and member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) since 2003, participating in different UN Post Disaster Coordination missions such as in Jamaica (Hurricane Ivan 2004), coordination of the recovery process after the earthquake in Peru (2007) and Haiti (2010) and the social crisis in Kyrgyzstan (August 2010).

Mr. Salazar is an Economist by the Catholic University of Lima – Peru (1989), an MBA by the Universidad of Piura-IESE, Peru-Spain (1992) and holds a MSc in National Development and Project Planning by the University of Bradford, UK (1995).

Representative of UNICEF in Belize. She is responsible for the leadership, oversight and guidance of the country programme; positioning child rights including in the sectors of social protection, health, nutrition, education, early childhood development, adolescent and child protection, as well as represent UNICEF with governments, multi and bi lateral development and humanitarian partners, the private sector and civil society. She also serves as the Designated Official for Staff Safety and Security. Ms Parker has over twenty - five years’ experience in the field of child rights, social development as well as policy and public advocacy. She brings with her rich multi-cultural experience and solid knowledge in complex, humanitarian and development operating environments, including Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Yemen, Sudan and Afghanistan amongst others, with extensive track record in advocacy, networking, resource mobilization, partnerships and social behavior change. A national of Sierra Leone, Ms. Parker is married and blessed with a son.

Denise E. Antonio is UNDP Resident Representative for Jamaica, Belize, Bermuda, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Denise has more than 20 years’ experience in the United Nations system, serving UNDP, UNFPA, UN missions and UN peacekeeping in Africa and New York. Denise is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State and a graduate of Business Administration in Accounting from Adelphi University. She is married and a mother of five.

Dr. Anna Paolini is the UNESCO representative in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Director of the UNESCO Office in Jamaica.

Previously, Dr Paolini was UNESCO Representative in the Arab States of the Gulf and Yemen and Director UNESCO Doha Office for the Countries of the Gulf and Yemen from September 2013 – June 2022. She was also UNESCO Representative and Head of Office in Uzbekistan from 2007 to 2009 and later she covered the same position in Jordan. In 1992, she joined UNESCO as a specialist in the field of culture at the Regional Office in Amman.

In 1997, she moved to UNESCO HQ covering several positions within the Culture Sector including being responsible for movable heritage activities and heritage in conflict response in the Arab region. Prior to that, she held a research associate role at the Institute of Architecture of Venice, worked in restoration in Italy and carried out research in the field of urban rehabilitation in several Arab and African countries.

Dr. Paolini holds a Master’s degree in Architecture and a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning for Developing Countries, a post-graduate degree in Development Cooperation, and a PhD in Urban and Territorial Engineering. She is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the Italian Association of Professional Architects and an author of several papers on different cultural heritage subjects.

Joined FAO in July 2012 as the Representative for Bolivia and thereafter served as the Representative for Mexico. He is a national of Brazil and an Agricultural Engineer and holds a Doctorate in Human Geography from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. He later served the university as a professor. He also served as the Vice Minister- National Secretary of Food Security in the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger, Brasilia DF, Brazil.

Experienced Technical Advisor with a demonstrated history of working in the international health sector. Skilled in Immunization, Health Communication, Epidemiology, Prevention, Reproductive Health, and Health Promotion. Strong professional medical doctor with a Masters in Public Health from University of the West Indies and a Certificate in Public Health Policy and Management focused in Public Health Policy from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Richard Amenyah is a medical doctor by training and brings into this position several productive years of professional experience in Global Health. He believes in the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 the urgent need to improve the health and wellbeing of people especially vulnerable women and girls as well as marginalized and underserved key populations.

He joined UNAIDS in 2014 and has wealth of experience in developing public health policies and programs to shape health investments in countries. He previously worked at the Regional Support Team of West and Central Africa as the Regional Investment and Efficiency Advisor and supported countries to mobilize resources from multi-lateral and bilateral donors, conducted several efficiency studies for sustainability planning, and coordinated technical support and capacity development programs for health systems strengthening. His last duty station was in Nigeria where he supported the setting up of a US$100 million HIV Trust Fund for the elimination of vertical transmission of HIV, establishment of continuous quality improvement initiatives for the HIV program, governance reform of the Country Coordinating Mechanism and the mobilization of the largest grant for a single country of about US$1.2 billion from the Global Fund for HIV/TB/Malaria/COVID19. He was a member of the core team that developed the current Global AIDS Strategy 2022-2026.

Dr Amenyah is a strong advocate for civil society, gender equality and human rights and a champion for the meaningful engagement of people living with HIV to be at the centre of the HIV response.

Prior to joining UNAIDS, he worked on regional technical support projects based in Burkina Faso, and in Ghana, his home country, he was the Technical Director-in-Charge of strategic planning, HIV program planning and implementation, performance monitoring and donor coordination at the Ghana AIDS Commission.

Ms. Talbert has a strong background in population and statistical development with over 30 years of experience in the Caribbean and East Africa. She has led population and housing censuses, poverty assessment and other social and economic surveys in several countries.

Prior to her appointment as Director at the UNFPA Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean and Representative to Jamaica, Ms Talbert served as Senior Statistician with the World Bank Poverty and Equity Global Practice in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where she managed the Statistical Development Project (2014-2021). Under her leadership, this project resulted in the improvement of the statistics law, strengthening of statistical and administrative data, and the enhancement of statistical infrastructure and human resource capacity. During her tenure in Tanzania, she also provided technical support to statistical offices in Zanzibar, Mozambique, Somalia and other East African member states.

In previous jobs, Ms. Talbert served as Chief Statistician, Government of the Cayman Islands (2009-2014); Statistical Consultant, Government of Guyana (2007-2008) and Deputy Chief Statistician, Government of Belize (2001-2007). She has also served as a consultant to the CARICOM Statistical Unit in analysing and preparing 2000 Census Country Reports.

Ms. Talbert is a native of Belize. She holds a BSc in Sociology and Public Administration, Minnesota State University, Mankato; MPhil in Population and Development, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala State, India and; MS in Demography, Florida State University. She was also a participant in the UNFPA Global Training Programme in Population and Development (1993-1994).

A national of Colombia, Liliana is a journalist and communications specialist with twenty-seven years of experience in the field — including twenty-three years with the UN and four years as a news producer.

As the director for the United Nations Information Centre for the Caribbean Area (UNIC Caribbean), Liliana works to educate Caribbean audiences about the work of the UN globally and provides communications support to various UN offices and agencies operating within the Caribbean region.

Before joining UNIC Caribbean, Liliana served as a Regional Communications Officer for the Development Coordination Office based in Panama. This position entailed managing a network of communication professionals across 25 countries. In previous years, she acted as Chief of Public Information and Communication Strategy in the UN Verification Mission in Colombia.

Prior to joining the Mission, she served as Information Officer for 17 years at UNIC Bogotá, which also covers Ecuador and Venezuela, and led public information activities.

Trained as a biochemist, Martin developed a management career between 1992 and 2003, holding regional management posts for Latin America and the Caribbean for Agro-Chemical companies. Due to convictions on social and political issues, he was an actively engaged citizen, participating in civil society activities with a focus on public policy issues. These convictions and experience moved him to become directly involved in strengthening democracy and good governance in Guatemala, leaving the private sector to engage in public policy design, analysis and implementation. During 2004, Martin was responsible of the "Security Advisory Office to the Guatemalan Congress". He facilitated the participation of civil society groups in the formulation of security sector policies through collaboration with congressional committees and parliamentary groups. In 2005 was appointed "Deputy Secretary at the Presidential Secretariat for Peace", the cabinet-level office responsible for the coordination and implementation of the Peace Accords. He led the Government’s efforts to re-structure the reparations programme for victims of the internal armed conflict, and in 2006 was appointed Executive Director of the Programa Nacional de Resarcimiento. After leaving public service Martin served as "Programme Officer for Haiti", developing a strategy to establish a decentralised and participatory dialogue process for peace and development in the Caribbean country. In 2011 Martin was appointed General Manager of Guatemala's Coffee Association to restructure the administrative body and strengthen the Association's ties and relations with private and public entities, and is actually Executive Secretary of Transparency Alliance, a civil society platform to advocate and promote integrity and transparency policies and measures across public and private sector.

Head of Office, UNHCR Belize Mr. Myradov joined UNHCR in 2001. He is a Canadian national and has since worked with UNHCR mainly in field locations such as Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Malawi, Yemen, Trinidad and Tobago, Iran. Mr. Myradov possess LL.M Degree in International Human Rights Law conferred upon by the University of Essex, the United Kingdom. He has hold number of functions in refugee and internally displaced persons protection area including resettlement, durable solutions, inter-agency and cluster coordination, field protection and management. Mr. Myradov prior to moving to Belize held a function of a UNHCR Head of Sub Office Shiraz, Iran.

Regis Chapman has over 20 years of international development and humanitarian experience, having served with the United Nations World Food Programme in various contexts since 2005.

He is the Representative and Country Director for the WFP Caribbean Multi-Country Office, overseeing WFP’s work throughout the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. Having opened the Caribbean office in Barbados in July 2018, he has strategically led the growth of an innovative portfolio of support designed to strengthen emergency preparedness and response capacities covering regional entities and 22 countries and territories.

He has extensive field experience in humanitarian and development programmes around the world in a variety of programme leadership roles, including in the Regional Bureau for Latin America & the Caribbean (2013-18), Somalia (2010-13), Afghanistan (2008-10), Regional Bureau for East and Central Africa (2007-08), Timor Leste (2006), Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific (2006) and Indonesia (2005).
Prior to joining the World Food Programme, he worked with the Red Cross Movement on food security programmes and emergency responses and with the United States Peace Corps on community development efforts at a grassroots level in rural El Salvador.

Mr Chapman is a national of the United States of America. He holds a graduate degree in Marketing from Arizona State University.

Ms. Sylvie Bertrand (Canada, Bolivia) joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Central America and the Caribbean (UNODC ROPAN) as its new Regional Representative.

Bringing extensive experience to the region, Sylvie joined UNODC in 2004. She has served both in the UNODC’s field network in Kenya and South Africa and at its Headquarters in Vienna. More recently she served as Deputy Regional Representative at the Regional Office for Eastern Africa and prior to joining UNODC’s management team, she worked at UNODC in various capacities, including as Advisor, Expert, Programme Coordinator and Head of Pillar, implementing UNODC’s health and social development mandate, including HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support of people who use drugs and people living and working in prison settings, as well as UNODC’s response on drug use prevention, treatment and care.

Before joining UNODC, Sylvie served at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a coordination officer in the Resident Coordinator's Office in South Africa and prior to joining the UN family, she had the opportunity to manage development projects in civil society organisations in Bolivia and Bulgaria. She worked in the public sector at the municipal level addressing management practices, including results-based management and services delivery.

Sylvie holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, advanced degrees in Municipal Management and Law, as well as a Master's degree in Public Administration from L'Ecole Administration Publique du Quebec, Canada. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Tonni Brodber is the Representative of the UN Women Multi-Country Office- Caribbean. Prior to her appointment in August 2020, Ms. Brodber served as Deputy Representative from 2015 -2020 with the MCO Caribbean. Before this Ms Brodber was the Team Leader for the Advancing Gender Justice in the Pacific Programme with the UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office. Ms Brodber served as the Gender Specialist for the United Nations Development Programme in South Africa, as well as briefly with the UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office and established what is now the UN Women Country Office in Haiti. Ms. Brodber received her first degree from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus and has post-graduate degrees in Development Studies and Business Administration from the London School of Economics and ESADE Business School in Barcelona.

Vincent Sweeney has been Head of the Caribbean Sub-Regional Office for the United Nations Environment Programme since 2016. He holds both a Bachelor's Degree and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia. He was admitted to the Association of Professional Engineers of Nova Scotia (APENS) as a full Member in 1989. He served in Nairobi, Kenya for 4 years as the Coordinator of the Global Progamme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (or GPA), located within UNEP's headquarters. He also served for 5 years as Regional Project Coordinator for the GEF-funded IWCAM project on Integrating Watershed & Coastal Area Management in 13 Caribbean SIDS. Prior to joining the UN, he served for 10 years as Executive Director of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute and has worked with water utilities in the Caribbean and in private consulting firms.