NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF COSTA RICA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Manuel B. Dengo, the new Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, from August 2009 to February 2010, Mr. Dengo worked for the Ministry of Inter-Institutional Coordination and the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica, where he served as a Consultant and Executive Director of the Limón City-Port Project, a development programme financed by the World Bank and the Costa Rican Government. He served as the Director of a Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative in Spain entitled Development Assistance Research Associates, from 2007 to 2009, during which time he led, developed and implemented activities in disaster risk reduction, among others.

Mr. Dengo worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York from 1997 to 2007 as the Chief of the Water, Natural Resources and Small Island Developing States Branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development. He was Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office at Geneva from 1994 to 1997. From 1979 to 1994, he worked at the World Meteorological Organization in a number of capacities, and was a candidate to the post of Secretary-General of WMO for the 1999 election. And from 1970 to 1979, he worked at the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity.

During his career, Mr. Dengo has taught at universities in Costa Rica and has had numerous publications.

Mr. Dengo has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Costa Rica (1968-1971) and a Master of Science in environmental control engineering and resource utilisation from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland (1973-1975). He was born on 16 September 1945 in San Jose, Costa Rica. He is married with four sons.


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CR10/010E