Denise E. Antonio, an American citizen and native of the west African country, Liberia, who had recently been appointed United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Jamaica, has also been appointed to serve as Resident Representative for Belize.

Ms. Antonio, who operates from the Kingston country office will be in Belize on mission from 22 to 26 July where she will meet with government officials, UNDP Belize and UN Resident Coordinator teams, as well as other UN agencies. She is also scheduled to pay courtesy calls on Belize’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment, and Sustainable Development; Ministry of Economic Development; Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation.

Ms. Antonio has reiterated UNDP’s commitment to supporting the government and people of Belize realize their development aspirations through UNDP Belize’s robust portfolio of projects focused on bio diversity, public health and natural resource management.

Prior to this appointment, Ms. Antonio was Deputy Country Director (Operations) with UNDP in Angola (2015-2019); Zimbabwe (2011-2015) and Deputy Resident Representative (Operations) in Ghana (2006-2011). Denise served as Chief Budget Officer with the United Nations Mission in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) in Abidjan (2005-2006).  She also served as Peacekeeping Accounts Officer with the United Nations in New York (2000-2005) and as Financial Systems Specialist with UNFPA (1998-2000). 

Before joining the United Nations, she held various positions of increasing responsibility in the USA as Controller at ScreenVision Cinema Network (1998); Controller at International herald Tribune (1995-1996); Senior Internal Auditor at The New York Times Company (1990-1995), and Auditor at New York Life Insurance Company (1998-1990).

Ms. Antonio is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State and a graduate of Business Administration in Accounting from Adelphi University. 

She is married to Kisseih-Tetteh Antonio from Ghana and is a mother of five – three boys and two girls.

The new Resident Representative took up her new assignment in Jamaica on 16 May 2019, while her appointment to Belize took effect on 10 June.