Abstract:"Syria shares borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. In 2016 the country had a population of 18.4 million, of whom almost half (8.2 million) were under 18 years old and 2 million were children under the age of 5. In 2010, Syria had a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.646, placing the country in the ‘medium human development’ category. Since the beginning of the civil war in 2011, however, living standards and the security situation have deteriorated steadily, with the HDI falling to 0.536 in 2015. Moreover, income levels have decreased drastically: 85.2 per cent of the population now live in poverty, and 69.3 per cent in extreme poverty, unable to secure the basic food and nonfood items necessary for survival". (...)