The purpose and the objectives of the project:

The purpose of the project is to increase transparency on the farmland market. The specific objectives of the project include:

• Establishing an active platform for policy dialogue between the stakeholders on farmland reform process
• Increasing public awareness about the different aspects of the farmland reform process
• Creating the means for active advocacy in peasants’ interests in the farmland reform process.

The activities planned and the methods of its implementation:

There are several core activities planned within the project including:

1. Building a new coalition of NGOs (Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting - IER, Center for Political and Legal Reforms - CPLR, and Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers - APP).
2. Introduction of an innovative tool for a regular monitoring of the implementation of the land reform and revealing the hidden problems of the process. This would be achieved via a repeated quarterly conducted opinion poll (‘Land reform barometer’). The poll would involve three groups (farmland owners/peasants; farmland users/farmers; and financial institutions). The opinion poll would be conducted 6 times in the 18 districts of Ukraine, interweaving 40 respondents. Processed poll results would indicate, in particular, where is the information deficit about the land market reform process.
3. Development of joint positions on policy or legislative problems via legal advice/consulting of the corresponding expert[s].
4. Advocacy and public awareness campaigns about farmland reform process with a broad engagement of peasants. This would be achieved via: Regular publishing and distributing of the poll’s results and corresponding legal/expert comments/advice on different revealed problems; Public discussion of the land reform implementation via local public debates and Final public presentation of the Project’s results and achievements in Kyiv via press conference. 

Background:

The agricultural sector is highly important of Ukrainian economy having significant impact on different aspect of society life (food security, rural population welfare etc). The absence of a fully-fledged farmland market has been considered as a stumbling block in developing of the agricultural sector in Ukraine. The discussion about the moratorium on farmland sales in Ukraine seems to come to an end. The government in many official statements declared its commitment to lift the moratorium on farmland trade by 2012. There is a real danger, however, that a free land market will lead to a rapid concentration of farmland in hands of a small group of wealthy Ukrainians at low prices. One of the main reasons is that the land market in Ukraine is gravely nontransparent . The group of potential buyers is likely to be limited to a relatively small number of wealthy, well connected and well informed buyers, which will be interested to purchase the land as cheap as possible. Current farmland owners (i.e. a large group of peasants), on the other hand, are largely poorly informed about their rights and responsibilities and often in a position of dependence. To counterbalance the current situation, there is a need for active advocacy and information campaign for peasants’ interests. This would increase transparency on farmland market and remove information asymmetry accelerating productivity growth in the sector via ensuring the farmland transfer from the less to the more efficient farmer. 

Survey results

Announcements

Issues of bulletin "Land Reform Barometer"

Project in Mass Media

Project Partners:

	The Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting(IER) is the leading Ukrainian analytical think tank focusing on economic research and policy advice, founded in October 1999.
	Center for Political and Legal Reforms (CPLR) is the Ukrainian think-tank founded in 1996 to promote reforms in legal and political spheres, strengthen the democracy, rule of law and good governance in Ukraine.
	The Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers (UAPP) is a leading voluntarily non-government and non-profit association of the periodic press publishers (newspapers, magazines, websites and distribution on mobile devices) in Ukraine founded in 2001.

The Project is supported by

The project "Land Reform Barometer: Information and Advocacy Campaign" is supported by Ukraine National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms (UNITER) project, which is implemented by Pact in Ukraine and made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).