Computing pre-conflict poverty data in Syria

Abstract

"Poverty is considered a key driver of civil conflict. However, this link has not yet been sufficiently investigated in the case of Syria, perhaps due to a lack of pre-conflict data. This article endeavours to fill this gap by computing poverty figures and uncovering some of Syria's poverty profile based on the household income and expenditure survey that took place in 2009, two years before the start of the conflict. We found that there were more extremely poor Syrian households but fewer overall poor households in 2009 than in 2007, with a greater incidence of poverty in rural areas than in urban areas. The poorest rural areas in 2009 were in the governorates of Hama, Deir Azzor and Daraa, while the poorest urban area was in Hassakeh. The findings of this article might provide key inputs for future investigations linking poverty to the incidence and intensity of the current conflict". (…)