UNDP officials outline scale of Syria damage and outline recovery scenarios requiring billions in investment

At a UN briefing, UN officials presented a UNDP-led socioeconomic assessment describing the scale of destruction in Syria and offering recovery scenarios that would require substantial investment and governance reforms.

Abdul Dardari, speaking for the UN country team, summarized the assessment’s core findings and repeatedly stressed the scale of human and economic loss. "The lives lost in the Syria conflict so far, what has been reported is 618,000," Dardari said, adding that 113,000 people were forcibly disappeared and that "more than half of the population" had been displaced, with about 7,200,000 internally displaced people and about 6,000,000 refugees.

The report lists steep economic and social declines: GDP has fallen by more than half since 2010; 90% of the population now live in poverty and 66% in extreme poverty; unemployment rose from about 8% before the conflict to about 24%, with an estimated 5,400,000 people losing their jobs; and roughly 16,500,000 Syrians now depend on assistance. Food-security figures cited in the briefing included 4% in acute food insecurity, 52% in severe food insecurity and 13% at risk.

Dardari said Syria’s energy and housing infrastructure suffered severe damage: generation capacity reportedly fell from roughly 9,000 megawatts in 2010 to under 1,500 megawatts today, about 70% of power plants…