The Possibility Of Transfer From Comprehensive In-Kind Support To Targeted Cash Support In Light Of The Repercussions Of The War On Syria

Abstract

This research begins with presenting a conceptual framework for the social support and highlighting its most visible methods. Then it shows an overview of the support methods applied in Syria and the amount of annual support provided by the Government to the community members during the period (2011-2021), and then proceeds to assess the experience of targeted cash support that took place in Syria in 2011, thus discussing the possibility of reactivating the method of targeted cash support in the current circumstances and the determinants imposed by the war.

The research concludes that targeted cash support is more efficient than the comprehensive in-kind support, particularly if the method of assessment adopted for targeting was indirect (Proxy Means Targeting). However, there are many determinants of the transition from in-kind support to cash support in Syria at the current stage, the most notably ones are the prevailing instability, high levels of inflation, the weak flexibility of the production system and the contraction of the gross domestic product, as well as the weak institutional capacity. The research suggests that comprehensive in-kind support should continue at the current stage, but that the distribution of subsidized goods should be determined in the light of the available resources, with gradual increase in the price of subsidized goods after the economic recovery. Once the situation has stabilized, conditional cash transfers must be applied to help the households restore the health and education conditions they lost during the war and that would enhance their capacities to improve their living and social conditions.