Belize City, Belize, February 15, 2024 – Today, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) newly appointed Resident Representative for Belize, Kishan Khoday, presented his credentials to Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), officially commencing his term as UNDP’s Resident Representative for the country. 

Khoday will be based at the UNDP Multi-Country Office in Jamaica from where he will represent UNDP in Belize, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, The Bahamas, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. 

In his meeting with the new Resident Representative, Hon. Fonseca, expressed his appreciation to UNDP as a good partner for Belize on a number of development issues.  

As a champion for inclusive and sustainable development, Khoday pledged continuing support across several sectors through the UNDP Country Programme (CP) (2022-2026) incorporating innovative and sustainable solutions on climate action, disaster resilience, ecosystem conservation, low-carbon development, social vulnerability, citizen security, access to justice and sustainable finance. 

While on his visit to Belize, the Resident Representative will also be meeting with Hon. John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize, several ministers and partner organizations. He will also be attending policy dialogues and meeting with representatives of partner UN agencies active in Belize. 

Khoday has served with UNDP for the past 25 years having coordinated more than USD$1 billion in-country programming to help partners and communities around the world advance inclusive and sustainable development initiatives. This included tours of duty in China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Jordan, advancing UNDP’s mandate to accelerate economic diversification and transformation, climate change and ecosystem conservation, women’s empowerment, disaster risk reduction, and human security.

Before joining the United Nations (UN), Khoday worked with government and community organizations in his home countries of Canada and India on issues of poverty reduction, ecological resilience, and community empowerment.

Khoday is Canadian and is a scientist and lawyer holding a Juris Doctorate specializing in constitutional, international, and environmental law; a Master of Science in natural resource management focused on land and water systems, and a Bachelor of Science in agriculture specializing in biodiversity and ecological change. The UNDP Resident Representative is a frequent speaker at international conferences and policy dialogues on the development agenda and a recognized thought leader on strategic issues such as climate change, ecosystem resilience, constitutionalism, postcolonial and decolonial theory, and resilience-based approaches to development, having published extensively on these and other issues.

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For more information, please contact:
United Nations Development Programme: 
Zenena Moguel, zenena.moguel@undp.org | Communication Analyst