PRISTINA — Tetsuo Kondo switched from being a diplomat to a United Nations official five years ago to work in countries rebuilding after war or natural disaster.
Now deputy chief of the Kosovo office of the United Nations Development Program, Kondo was with the Foreign Ministry for more than 20 years and was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
With the advance of globalization, Kondo felt there were limits to what a single country could do to resolve conflicts and soon developed an interest in multilateral diplomacy.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, he decided to work on the ground in countries undergoing reconstruction.
He joined the UNDP and worked on reconstruction in Asian countries affected by the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people before assuming his current post in Kosovo's capital of Pristina.
"I try to understand local residents' feelings every day and to explain that our support is not a stopgap," he said.
Kondo, 50, is working on projects to provide job training and guidance on setting up businesses to former militiamen as well as to improve school facilities.
"I would somehow like to reduce by half the number of poor people living on less than $2 a day," Kondo said.
U.N. field employees do not get new contracts unless they produce results in their work.