The Socio-Economic Impact of the Crisis in Syria

The Socio-Economic Impact of the Crisis in Syria
Mr Zaki Mehchy (right) with Dr Murat Yurtbilir
Thursday 14 June 2018

Mr Zaki Mehchy was at CAIS on 13 June for a roundtable discussion on the socio-economic impact of the Syrian crisis. Mr Mehchy is a co-founder and researcher at The Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR). He is in Australia as a guest of DFAT's Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR).

The Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) is an independent, non-governmental, and non-profit think tank; which undertakes public policy-oriented research to bridge the gap between research and policy making process. SCPR aims to develop a participatory evidence-based policy dialogue to achieve policy alternatives that promote sustainable, inclusive, and human-centred development.

In his address, Mr Mehchy outlined the role of SCPR and the three projects related to their work. The first project is to understand the Syrian conflict. Mr Mehchy stated the root cause of the Syrian crisis is political oppression where the majority of the population had been excluded from social, political and economic resources. The social media available to Syrians allowed them to see popular uprisings in other Middle Eastern countries and so began a peaceful protest movement. However, the Syrian regime turned the movement into a violent conflict.

The second SCPR project is to create a humanity capital index in order to document and publicise the impact of the war on a social level. The three main aspects of this project are income, health and education.

One result of the seven-year conflict in Syria is the collapse of the regular economy, with a loss of $US255 billion, and the rise of a 'violence-related economy'. Fifty per cent of economic activity is related to smuggling, kidnapping, arms sales etc. The Syrian labour force has deteriorated with 12 million people without an income. Ninety per cent of all Syrians are living in poverty. Adding to the impact on incomes has been the crippling inflation and the significant depreciation of the Syrian Pound. Mr Mehchy summarised this section by saying - Syria has lost 50 years of development output and is back to where it was in the 1970s. 

In the area of health, the most compelling fact is that life expectancy has dropped from 71 to 55 years. This is a result of the dramatic increase in mortality with 500,000 deaths over the course of the war.

In education, 20 per cent of all schools have been destroyed and half the population of children are out of school. A destructive element emerging in the education system is the de facto authority in the different regions are imposing their own curriculum as a means to push the politics of identity. Mr Mehchy said this practise has further fractured Syrian identity.

The third arm of the SCPR project is the development of an alternative paradigm. The Syrian war has allowed the population two choices either the regime or chaos. SCPR is working on an alternative path to counter the deterioration in social cohesion, the huge social polarisation, and the 'investment in hate' that the identity politics of the war have created. As part of this project, SCPR has developed a social capital index to measure the shared values, social networks and trust of the Syrian people.

Finally, Mr Mehchy said there is no genuine reconstruction in Syria. Instead, the regime is building a new city for the 'conflict elite' to reward those who have been loyal.


Zaki Mehchy's work focuses on development policies and he has participated in several research and studies on socio-economic impact of the crisis in Syria, poverty and multidimensional deprivation, social capital and social cohesion, labor force, demography, and community empowerment. He worked for the Syrian Center for Development Research as a senior researcher before working for SCPR in 2012. He obtained a BA in Economics and a Diploma certificate in International Economic Relations from Damascus University. He has an MSc in International Economics from the University of Essex, UK.

 

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