Deprivation of Bread and Energy: Policies Deepening Poverty in Syria - A Position Paper by the Syrian Initiative for Fundamental Rights

Read the full article here: Syrian Initiative for Fundamental Rights

Wheat, bread and energy are fundamental pillars of food and livelihood security in Syria. They cannot be treated as mere budgetary expenditure items to be managed by raising prices and reducing subsidies, irrespective of the social and economic consequences. This paper argues that policies to liberalize bread and energy prices and increase the cost of agricultural production during the transition do not constitute economic reform in any developmental sense. Rather, they deepen poverty and undermine food security and social legitimacy. As such, the paper calls for a transitional social protection approach that guarantees access to bread, energy and housing as basic requirements for a dignified life, while linking support for producers, wages and services to the actual cost of living and poverty lines.

In this context, the Syrian Initiative for Fundamental Rights warns that treating wheat, bread and energy as expenditure items whose subsidies can be cut and prices raised represents a dangerous departure from the social and political significance of food and production in Syria. The legitimacy of a state emerging from a prolonged war is not measured by its ability to raise prices or generate a nominal fiscal surplus, but by its ability to provide food, protect producers and guarantee a minimum level of access to energy, housing and decent work opportunities.

___________________________

For more information or to provide feedback, please contact SJAC at [email protected] and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to SJAC’s newsletter for updates on our work