Economic Solutions in Crises and Wars

It is crucial for us in Syria, amidst a complex war and crisis, to benefit from modern ideas to combat poverty. With 90% of the Syrian population living below the poverty line, poverty has become an additional burden on the Syrian people alongside the suffering caused by the war. These ideas must be based on modern economic theories, focusing on feasible solutions at the economic and societal levels to alleviate some of the hardships faced by our afflicted Syrian people until the end of this war.

Sectoral Solutions:
We discuss the following:

• Vital Sectors: Economic plans can be long-term or short-term, which is essential for vital sectors like agriculture. Supporting local agricultural production to ensure food security, encouraging self-sufficiency in agriculture while monitoring imports to protect farmers, and exports to protect citizens, is necessary. The same applies to industry, where the focus should be on light and medium industries that provide job opportunities and reduce reliance on imports by utilizing Syrian labor. Additionally, investing in renewable energy sources to reduce costs and reliance on imports through supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and providing well-studied loans via alternatives to banking loans, such as mutual aid projects, charitable associations, the good loan experience in Lebanon, and activating the role of endowments. The experience of Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus can be applied at the Syrian level by supporting labor with funds to purchase primary materials, simplifying bureaucratic procedures, and providing training programs to develop workers’ skills, which we are striving to implement in our offices in Syria.
• Social Protection: Syria urgently needs to increase spending on social protection programs such as pensions and health insurance by supporting those most affected by the war, like refugees and displaced persons. In a previous article titled “Raising Wages in Syria,” we explained the importance of studying pensions and salaries and demonstrated that increasing wages is beneficial for stimulating economic activity and provides a real guarantee for social protection.
• International Cooperation: This involves seeking financial and humanitarian assistance from friendly countries and international institutions and participating in regional economic cooperation initiatives.
• Innovation and Technology: This involves supporting research and development in technological fields relevant to the economy and encouraging the use of technology to improve production efficiency and service delivery.
• Transparency and Anti-Corruption: Enhancing transparency in managing public resources is the backbone of any economic progress after establishing security, even if only relatively. Combating corruption aims to increase trust in government institutions, making it a significant economic driver for any stable country, let alone one in a state of war.
• Post-War Planning: Looking beyond the war will be beneficial both now and in the future by developing plans for economic recovery after the war ends and investing in infrastructure and reconstruction.

Key Priorities:
When discussing solutions, efforts must be made to adapt them to the economic and social conditions of each area individually, ensuring that economic solutions are integrated with political and security solutions and aiming to make them sustainable in the long term as much as possible while considering the current military situation. Therefore, it is necessary to benefit from economic theories, such as neoliberal economics, which emphasizes the role of the private sector in driving economic growth, and behavioral economics, which studies the impact of psychological factors on economic decisions.
In addition, there is a need for additional resources, such as working on the introduction of digital banks and leveraging international funds like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to provide financial and technical support to affected countries. Furthermore, greater importance should be given to NGOs in providing humanitarian and relief aid.

In conclusion, this article is merely a general overview of some ideas for economic solutions, which require an in-depth study of the economic and social situation of each area individually. We at the Economic Office of the Syrian Future Movement (SFM) are working with economic experts to conduct research studies of interest to decision-makers, and we are pleased to connect with any entity seeking to advance the national economy to offer our expertise in this field.

Ammar Al-Omari
Economic Office
Department of Research and Studies
Articles
Syrian Future Movement (SFM)