MEDirections is delighted to share a new Blog Post from the Wartime and Post-Conflict in Syria project (WPCS).
After the gradual lifting on subsidies for oil derivatives, in 2020 and particularly 2021, Damascus took a next important step, on 1 February 2022. It announced the exclusion of approximately 600,000 families from its subsidy programme; something like three million people in total (based on an average of 5-6 individuals per Syrian household). Six hundred thousand families would account for around 15% of smart-cart holders. The latest decision of the government, like previous austerity measures, increases economic marginalisation and political tensions. In Syria, it must be remembered, more than 90% of the population live under the poverty line and at least 13.1 million individuals need humanitarian aid.
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