Abstract:"Although some recent reports point out that deteriorating living conditions were a key factor leading to the current violent conflict in Syria, none has sufficiently investigated pre-conflict poverty rates at the governorate level. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is the only entity that computed national poverty figures for 2009 (ESCWA 2017). It found that the national rates of food, extreme, and overall poverty rates in Syria decreased to 1.5 per cent, 10 per cent, and 24.8 per cent, respectively, in 2009. It is clear, however, that ESCWA's estimates are counter-intuitive due to two main reasons: first is the unprecedented waves of drought hitting the area in the years immediately preceding the conflict; second, cuts in energy subsidies in May 2008 had a strong negative effect on people who were just above the poverty line. Thus, this One Pager summarises findings in Hamati (2019), which computes poverty rates for Syria in 2009, using a sample from that year's household income and expenditure survey. We try to fill a gap and compute poverty figures and profiles at the governorate basis in a country which was on its way to being engulfed in a very violent civil conflict two years later". (...)

Keywords:Computing, pre-conflict, poverty, profile, Syria
Publication Date:
Type/Issue:One Pager/428
ISSN:2318-9118

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