Executive Summary
In order to track key macroeconomic and social changes in Syria during the current crisis, UNRWA commissioned five quarterly reports from the Syrian Centre for Policy Rese arch (SCPR). These begin from the first quarter of 2013 until the first quarter of 2014. This report is the first of the five quarterly reports contracted. The analysis and projections of SCPR indicate that:
Social impact
Armed - conflict in Syria has resu lted in the systematic dislocation of communities, with a pattern of forced and voluntary displacement that has led to almost a third of the population (31%) departing or fleeing their normal place of residence, with 1.3 million refugees from Syria (equiva lent to six per cent of the population) in neighbouring countries, 1.33 million persons temporarily and voluntary migrating from the country (approximately 6.2 per cent of the population), with another 3.92 million persons (equivalent to 18.3 per cent of t he populations) internally displaced within Syria.
Syrian human development indices have been rolled back 35 years.
More than half the population of 21.4 million persons now live in poverty, with an additional 6.7 million persons descending into poverty during to period of the conflict, with some 3.6 million of these becoming extremely poor.
Since the start of the conflict 2.3 million jobs have been lost, while the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 48.8 per cent. While those on fixed incomes have seen the purchasing power of their salaries plummet as the consumer price index spiked by 84.4 per cent and the value of the Syrian pound depreciated by over 300 per cent against the US dollar.
The educational system is in crisis with damage and destruction t o almost 3,000 schools, while another 1,992 provide shelter for IDPs. The school attendance rate has dropped to 46.2 per cent, with a shortage of teachers as thousands have joined the throng of refugees and IDPs.
The healthcare system has been devastated by the loss of 32 government hospitals, 31 per cent of PHC facilities, the collapse of the domestic pharmaceutical industry and international sanctions blocking the import of lifesaving drugs, specialised modern medical equipment and spare - parts . The syste m has also been stressed by shortages of health care workers, 80,000 deaths and approximately 240 ,000 persons that were injured or maimed during the conflict.