U.S. grant of $14.5 M aims to accelerate land deed registration process in Ukraine (12/02/01)

U.S. grant of $14.5 M aims to accelerate land deed registration process in Ukraine

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV The United States granted $14.5 million to Ukraine on November 26 to assist and quicken the process of land deed registration by Ukrainian farmers and private landowners.

The signing of the agreement between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Association of Ukrainian Farmers and Private Landowners came five weeks after the Ukrainian Parliament passed a Land Code for the country on October 25.

Several days after the bill was passed, USAID announced that in order to help move along implementation of the new legal code, it would allot the funds needed to help 1.8 million farmers obtain their land acts (registration of deeds) within a 24- to 27-month time frame. It is expected that 200,000 new land deeds will be registered by the end of this year as a result of the impetus provided by U.S. financial resources.

There are approximately 6.6 million people in Ukraine today who have taken land claims and obtained certificates that acknowledge their claims. Their lands produce about 10 percent of the total gross domestic product of the agricultural sector, and the U.S. government is keen on helping them assert their land rights as quickly as possible. The U.S. funding, however, will only assist about 37 percent of them.

"We must select those who are ready and willing to work based on the existing legal framework," said Steven Dobrylovych of USAID after signing the agreement with the farmer's association that extended American support to Ukrainian farmers.

The program, therefore, will concentrate on those landowners who already have leased their lands to larger agricultural corporations, cooperatives and associations, or those who are preparing to do so.

The money, for the most part, will be spent on educational and promotional campaigns to encourage villagers to claim their land parcels and register their deeds, which are known here as land acts, to teach them how to do so and to advise them of their rights as landowners. The public relations campaign will include the distribution of posters, brochures and flyers, as well as the scheduling of information seminars throughout Ukraine.

The program will also extend support to local village and town governments to process the paperwork submitted by farmers in transferring their land certificates to land acts efficiently and in compliance with Ukrainian law.

USAID will work in conjunction with the Ukrainian Association of Farmers and Landowners, a non-governmental organization that currently has 4,000 branches in Ukraine. It is expected to expand by another 6,000 branches by the end of next year, which would give it a presence in 90 percent of the villages of Ukraine.

Mykhailo Dankevych, an official of the association's board of directors, said the cooperative effort between the association and the U.S. government is itself an important development.

"Trust is being placed to carry out the project not in the government, but in the farmers' association, a non-governmental organization," explained Mr. Dankevych.

The Verkhovna Rada passed the long-awaited land code after a stormy and violent parliamentary session on October 25, which was preceded by months of legislative work required to resolve nearly 1,000 proposed changes to the original draft law and much interference by left-wing legislators bent on de-railing the process.

The new land code, which requires the approval of some 35 additional laws before it can be fully implemented, will allow for the sale and purchase of land beginning in 2005.

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