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 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; in this post, 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) team from 2003, participating in UN Post Disaster Coordination missions including in Jamaica (Hurricane Ivan 2004), the emergency and recovery process after the earthquake in Peru (Ica 2007), the UNDAC mission to Haiti (Port au Prince 2010), and as UNDP Resource Mobilization and Early Recovery Advisor to Kyrgyzstan (August 2010).

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

Brian Bogart has over 20 years of experience managing humanitarian and development programmes at the global, regional and national levels. As the Country Director for the WFP Caribbean Multi-Country Office, he oversees WFP’s work throughout the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean in the areas of social protection, disaster risk management and food systems.

Before joining the Caribbean Office, Mr. Bogart was the Deputy Country Director for WFP Tanzania. Prior to this, he served as Senior Regional Programme Advisor for Southern Africa and Strategic Advisor in the New York Global Office and HQ, and in emergency coordination roles in Ukraine, Mozambique, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and South Sudan. He began his career with WFP in 2005 as a Congressional Hunger Fellow in Cambodia.

Mr. Bogart is a national of the United States and holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury and a BA in Political Science from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

In May of 2022 Diana Locke was appointed Head of Office – Belize at the International Organization for Migration, the UN Agency with responsibility for Migration. Ms. Locke leads the IOM Belize team in implementing projects that aim to build capacity in the field of migration among all stakeholders, including the Government and private sectors; promote and encourage data collection and analysis to inform policies and support decision-making; and highlight issues around migration and climate change, and the safe voluntary return and reintegration of migrants.

Prior to joining IOM, Ms. Locke served as a career public officer in the Government of Belize for 32 years (1988-2020). She worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 28 years in various capacities, serving in Belize’s Diplomatic Offices in Washington and London, and thereafter as an Acting Permanent Secretary and then as Director responsible for Bilateral, Protocol and Consular matters. In 2016 she assumed responsibilities as Director of Immigration and Nationality Services (2 years) prior to the separation of the Departments, and later (2018) as Director of Border Management and Immigration Services (2 years) prior to retirement.

Ms. Locke obtained her Master of Science Degree in Management with specializations in International Business and Human Resource Management from St. Thomas University in Florida, where she also obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management. She is a graduate of St. Catherine Academy and St. John’s Junior College in Belize.

Diana Locke was born in Belize in 1965. She is married and the mother of two children, and she maintains a strong interest in conservation issues and a passion for photography.

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.

Ken Legins is a dedicated advocate for child rights with more than 25 years' experience in international development. Before joining the UNICEF Belize office, Mr. Legins served as the Deputy Representative for Programmes at UNICEF Iraq (2022-25) and as Chief of Supply Chain Strengthening at UNICEF's global supply headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark (2016-2022). He was also Global Advisor for HIV Policy and Evidence at UNICEF Headquarters, and he represented UNICEF in the COVID-19 pandemic Supply Chain System - with USAID, GAVI, The Gates Foundation, and other sectors - and on the Global Fund Board.

As Chief of HIV and Adolescent Development at UNICEF China, he supported the Chinese government establish that country's first cadre of social workers. At the WHO Regional Office in Europe, he worked on adolescent and maternal health in Ukraine and North Macedonia, and with refugee women and children in Albania during the Kosovo war.

Mr. Legins received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and holds a Master's in Public Health from Yale University.

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.

Ms. Rivas joined the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean as Director in June 2025. She brings more than 20 years’ experience managing large-scale national projects and leading regional mechanisms and programmes.

From 2020, Ms. Rivas served as Director-General of the National Statistics Office (ONE) of the Dominican Republic and, between 2023-2025, was Chair of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC. She has also held the positions of Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Promotion of Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (CENPROMYPE), National Programme Officer at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), Technical Secretary for Women in the Council of Ministers for Women’s Affairs of Central America and the Dominican Republic (COMMCA), Executive Director of the Economic Research Centre for the Caribbean (CIECA), and Director of Research and Strategy in the National Commission on Trade Negotiations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic.

Ms Rivas, a national of the Dominican Republic, holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in gender and development from the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC) as well as a master’s in economic policy from the National University of Costa Rica.

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.

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.

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.