This report is the first output from an ongoing process of collaboration between the Government of Syria, UNDP, and other national and international stakeholders to devise a poverty reduction strategy for Syria. The targeted audience is policymakers and advisors in the government, civil society at large and partners in Syria’s development process. The report presents a diagnostic analysis of the extent and determinants of poverty in Syria since the latter half of the 1990s. It also proposes broad socio-economic measures that could be considered by Syrian decision makers in formulating the national five-year plan and any macroeconomic framework for poverty reduction. Still, it is merely a first analytical step in a complex process that devises a more detailed set of local and sectoral strategies required to tackle poverty alleviation. The findings of this study are based primarily on data from two surveys: the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in 1996-1997 and 2003-2004. In addition, national accounts data, as well as other secondary data available from government sources, were used.