Land Reform and Land Market Development in Ukraine: Findings of The Ukraine Land Titling Initiative (UTI) Project Assessment and Strategies for Future USAID Iintervention

USAID’s program sought to revitalize the agricultural sector through land privatization and, at the same time, provide the rural population a social safety net. USAID hoped to enhance the ability of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to use frozen capital assets, thereby allowing the agricultural sector to recapitalize and accelerate growth in value-added food processing. Transferring ownership of land to rural individuals who have become economically disenfranchised during the transition from a planned to market economy is also expected to improve living standards for the rural poor, most of whom are elderly. Both the success of the USAID-funded Ukraine Land Titling Initiative (ULTI) in developing the land market and its expected result of credit expansion depend on the ability to transfer and mortgage land and property as well as the suitability of land as collateral in the eyes of formal lenders. At USAID’s initiative, this evaluation has been undertaken to evaluate ULTI’s performance and Ukraine’s progress with land market development for the purpose of (1) strengthening USAID’s collaboration with the World Bank (WB) land reform program, (2) improving on its approach to land reform and land market development in the Ukraine, and (3) identifying new strategies and development pathways for assisting Ukraine’s land privatization and land market development.