'Big dreams but limited budget': Syrian minister reflects on a year after Assad’s fall

Syria’s Social Affairs and Labour Minister Hind Kabawat has told The National that the transitional government has “big dreams” but few resources with which to realise them, limiting its work amid high expectations from both inside and outside the country.

A year after the fall of the regime of Bashar Al Assad, Ms Kabawat reflected in an interview with The National on the achievements and constraints faced by the transitional cabinet formed in March, a 23-member body in which she is the only woman and the only Christian.

She said the wide array of western sanctions imposed on Syria has significantly “slowed” the work of her ministry, a vital portfolio in the country’s delicate transition period. It oversees social protection for the most vulnerable, including victims of Syria’s ruinous 14-year civil war, the return of millions of refugees, social cohesion, and labour and employment regulation.

Her task is daunting. About 90 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN, half of the country’s prewar population of 23 million is displaced, the economy is in tatters and sectarian tensions are simmering.

“Don’t forget we didn’t have money. We have the will, we have the passion, we want to work, we have big dreams but a limited budget, and people are waiting for us to deliver,” she said, adding that recent sanctions relief has moved things in the right direction.

Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa waves to the crowd at the gate of Aleppo’s Citadel during celebrations marking a year since an Islamist alliance swiftly took control of the city that eventually toppled long-tim