Syria: The soaring costs of conflict

What the world should know is that the war is costing the entire region – both Syria and its neighbours – hundreds of billions of dollars, compromising the future for an entire generation of children.

The Cost of Conflict for Children, a report coproduced by World Vision and Frontier Economics, frames the Syrian conflict through an economic lens.  While we have no tool to measure the cost of a destroyed childhood, we can calculate the economic losses for that child’s country.  For Syria alone, the war has cost an estimated $370 billion.  Even if it ends this year, that cost will increase to up to $927 billion in terms of lost growth for Syria.  That’s almost 100 times the amount required to meet refugee needs across the region. 

There’s only one solution with the power to put an end to all of the costs associated with Syria’s conflict, and that’s peace. 

That’s just for Syria. Now let’s look at the cost to Syria’s neighbors, those who have taken in millions of refugees.  In Lebanon, real GDP is nearly 23 per cent lower than it would have been without the war.  This greatly depletes Lebanon’s ability to manage the needs of such a large influx of families.  And it also has a direct and tragic impact on Lebanese children and on Syrian refugee children living in Lebanon, as only 48 per cent are able to access educational opportunities.  How will they ever be able to return and rebuild their country? 

We know that members of the global community have incurred their own costs in responding to the crisis, whether through humanitarian aid or military intervention.  Yet it seems that neither these rising costs – nor soaring levels of human loss and suffering – have been enough to prompt a real push for lasting peace in Syria.  Despite the valiant efforts of countries like Canada, international appeals for humanitarian aid remain chronically and substantially underfunded, whilst the global community’s pledges and budgets available to fund and fuel the conflict seem limitless. This approach is short-sighted, illogical, and costly.  There’s only one solution with the power to put an end to all of the costs associated with Syria’s conflict, and that’s peace. 

It’s time for every country to address the question: what’s the bottom line in this conflict?  

We must look to children like Heba, who now see Syria in nothing but black and red, to show the world what’s needed to restore colour to their lives.

World Vision partnered with Frontier Economics to evaluate the economic losses to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, to provide insight into what life might have looked like for these children if there had been no conflict and into what future impacts are likely to be if the conflict continues. Read the report here.