Attachments
Executive Summary
Syria is located in the eastern Mediterranean region of western Asia, where it is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, Israel to the southwest, and Lebanon to the west, with a short coastline along the Mediterranean Sea (Figure 1). Syria’s ecology ranges from coastal areas to deserts, resulting in wide ecological variations that shape livelihoods. Rural households heavily engage in agriculture; however, both rural and urban households rely on markets for the bulk of their consumption. In rural areas, the main sources of income for food purchases include crop sales, livestock sales, casual labor, petty trade, self-employment, gifts (including charitable giving such as zakat), remittances, and cash transfers. In urban areas, the main sources of income for food purchases include daily wage labor, formal employment, and/or trading. The main expenditure for both rural and urban households is food; however, other important expenditures include housing, fuel, electricity, health care, telecommunications, water, transportation, education, and debt repayment.
Poor households in Syria are vulnerable to a combination of conflict-related, weather, and economic hazards. The Syrian civil war, which lasted nearly 14 years from 2011 to 2024, resulted in widespread internal displacement, economic collapse, and long-lasting damage to basic public infrastructure and livelihood systems. Although the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 marked the end of large-scale war and led to the formation of a transitional government in March 2025, political fragmentation and insecurity persist, and the cumulative impacts of conflict continue to undermine recovery and regional stability. Prior to the war, Syria’s oil fields served as a central pillar of the national economy, alongside an agricultural sector that supplied domestic markets and exports, complemented by an expanding industrial base and a growing tourism industry. Since 2011, however, conflict-related disruptions and sustained declines in oil production have triggered severe macroeconomic deterioration, undermining all major sectors and reversing years of growth. These dynamics have contributed to a protracted humanitarian crisis, characterized by weakened public service delivery, erosion of livelihood systems, and diminished state capacity. An estimated 7.4 million people remain internally displaced, including approximately 5.2 million living outside formal sites and 2.1 million in 1,736 formally registered sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs), primarily concentrated in Idlib and Aleppo.The extreme poverty rate increased sharply from 11 percent in 2010 to 66 percent in 2024, according to the UN Development Program (UNDP). In the current transitional period, the food security situation in Syria remains concerning. Ongoing economic shocks, alongside protracted internal displacement, persistent internal and cross-border insecurity, and recurrent drought – inclusive of hydrological drought defined by low water levels in the Euphrates River and exacerbated by complex transboundary water management issues – are currently the key drivers of acute food insecurity among poor households countrywide. Areas of concern include Aleppo, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, Al-Hasakah, Homs, Idlib, Ar-Raqqa, and Rural Damascus.