ISTANBUL — With much of the Middle East and beyond in the grip of prolonged and violent crisis, the development community is increasingly compelled to work in the middle of war zones. Organizations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), whose fundamental mission is to eradicate poverty, now find themselves trying to stabilize communities before the guns have even fallen silent.

Al-Monitor spoke with UNDP administrator Achim Steiner, who was in Turkey this week for a conference on plugging the gap in international development financing and to meet senior Turkish officials including Vice President Fuat Oktay and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

In the following excerpts, which have been edited for clarity, Steiner describes his agency’s sometimes perilous but essential work in places like Syria, how the global refugee crisis continues to enflame tensions and the future of multilateralism amid a backlash against globalization.

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