BEIRUT: Over the past year, 87.4% of Syrian businesses, or almost nine in ten, were negatively impacted by the unprecedented crisis.
With the aim of assessing the implications of COVID-19 lockdowns on Syrian Entrepreneurs in the Middle East, Jusoor and Spark released a new study titled “Relentless: Syrian Refugee Entrepreneurship in Host Countries.”
Two-hundred and seventy-one Syrian founders, business experts, and NGO representatives in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq were interviewed. Some of the most reported challenges by the interviewees were the lack of financial backing, inadequate infrastructures such as internet or electricity, and the growing gap in knowledge.
“This research has shown that Syrian founders, particularly those in the early stage of starting a business, have been particularly vulnerable to the new business climate imposed by COVID-19 restrictions across the countries,” Grace Atkinson, Executive Director of Jusoor, said.
Syrian businesses in Turkey and Lebanon were also more likely to get impacted by the restrictions of the respective countries.
“Like many small businesses and startups around the world, Syrian owners had to shut down operations as the crisis hit. But the difference was that for them, with the absence of any form of support, they have lost the only source of income for their families. We are talking about thousands of businesses who lost years of progress in the span of two months,” Atkinson added.
Based on these findings, Jusoor and Spark request the urgent intervention of refugee-hosting governments and call for the creation of a post-COVID strategy to support job creation and introduce policies that encourage the inclusion of Syrian founders through low-cost business registration schemes. The organizations also invite donors and investors to direct their resources towards small businesses and startups through cash grants and micro-finance.
Highlighted Findings:
- Access to a source of funds (62.9%) was the biggest challenge for Syrian businesses, followed by location and mobility restrictions (49.3%), laws and regulations (30.6%), infrastructure (30.1%), supply chain (30.1%), and business knowledge (6.2%).
- 64.8% of entrepreneurs run their business informally. Of those, 45.6% are home-based, 28.2% are SMEs, 22.8% are startups, and 3.4% are large businesses.
- SMEs came out worst off in this survey, with 51.30% saying the pandemic’s impact was extreme, followed by home-based businesses (44.4%), large enterprises (38.9%), and startups (31.4%).
- 35 out of 83 female-owned enterprises that participated in this research had to suspend operations at some point of the lockdown, revealing additional gender-based struggles.
You can read the full research report here.
About JUSOOR
Jusoor is an NGO founded by Syrian expatriates with a mission to support Syrian youth to realize their potential through programs in the fields of education, entrepreneurship, and global community engagement.
Since its launch in 2011, Jusoor has enabled over 625 university students to complete their degrees around the world. We have enrolled over 7,000 children in our primary schools, giving them the gift of a basic education. And our entrepreneurship program has trained and inspired over 500 young entrepreneurs. By investing in these children and youth, Jusoor is preparing a generation of change agents to be able to return to Syria and play a role in rebuilding every sector of society, from healthcare to education to business to governmental institutions.
Jusoor’s work has been recognized by global institutions and has been honored with the Academic Freedom Award from the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 2015, the Takreem Humanitarian and Civic Services Award in 2017 and the Institute of International Education (IIE) Centenary Medal in 2019.
ABOUT SPARK
SPARK provides access to higher education and supports entrepreneurship development in fragile states so that young, ambitious people can lead their societies into stability and prosperity. SPARK provides a variety of full-service business and entrepreneurship programmes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We believe that sustainable, economic growth is essential for the alleviation of poverty. By offering private-sector development services to young people in conflict-affected regions, we believe that the potential for further conflict is significantly reduced.