FINAL ACTIVITY REPORT
BY ANDREI MARUSOV, 2001 FELLOW
The structure of the report
1. Cooperation with Ukrainian NGOs and research centers
2. Research project implementation
3. Seminar/Conferences Participation
4. Publications
1. COOPERATION WITH UKRAINIAN NGOs AND RESEARCH
CENTERS
- The Concept of the Ukrainian NGO “The Center for
the Land Reform Policy” has been drafted in close cooperation with
the Land Reform Information Support Project (the Project manager Natalia
Korchakova myland@iatp.kiev.ua) (March 2001)
- The project proposal titled “National Media Competition
“My Land” has been drafted (in close cooperation with the
Land Reform Policy Center, director Natalia Korchakova myland@iatp.kiev.ua)
and submitted to the U.S. Embassy Media Fund (March, August 2001). The
final decision is pending
- Dissemination strategy for the information brochure “The
Land Reform: questions and answers” (200 000 copies) published
with financial assistance of the USAID office in Ukraine has been developed
(in cooperation with the Land Reform Policy Center, director Natalia Korchakova
myland@iatp.kiev.ua) and submitted to the USAID (March 2001). The copy
of the strategy draft can be found
here
- The research project proposal titled “Reform potential
of the Ukrainian rural self-government: successes, problems and failures
of its realization in the process of agrarian and land reforms in Ukraine”
has been developed (in cooperation with the Center for Social Expertise
and Prognosis at the Institute of Sociology of Ukraine, director Jurij
Privalov, csep@csep.kiev.ua) and submitted to the International Renaissance
Foundation in Ukraine (May 2001). The Project has not been supported by
the Foundation. The Foundation did not explain the reasons of the denial
- Information and evaluation components of the Land Title
Issuing Project (to be launched by the State Committee for Land Resources
with financial assistance of the World Bank) have been drafted (in close
cooperation with the Land Reform Policy Center, director Natalia Korchakova
myland@iatp.kiev.ua) and submitted to the State Committee for Land Resources
(May 2001)
- Preliminary talks with deputies of the Kyiv city district
council have been held with the purpose to identify the possible projects
in the sphere of the IT tools application for facilitating citizens’
access to the services of the local district government and citizens’
input into decision-making of the district council and state district administration
2. RESEARCH PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
- The concept, the analytical scheme, expert interview
plans have been developed and piloted by the Summer 2001
National level experts have been identified and
interviewed during the Summer and early Autumn. Almost 50 persons have been
interviewed. The preliminary results have been summarized and presented
at the 2nd International Conference "Information, Prognosis, Analysis - Strategic
Factors of the Effective State Governance" organized by the Ministry of
Education and Sciences and the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific, Technical
and Economic Information in October 2001
- Oblast and raion level experts have been identified
and interviewed in Autumn 2001 - Spring 2002. Field trips have been
conducted in 7 oblasts and 11 raions of Eastern, Central, Northern,
Southern and Western Ukraine. The summary of main findings of local
experts' interviewing have been compiled. I decided not to go to the
Republic of Crimea because thourough analysis would inevitably involve the
issue of the distribution of land to Crimean Tatars and would thus require
more time and resources and, perhaps, employment of other research methods
than those initially developed
The list of organizations/institutions etc in
which national and local experts were identified and interviewed can
be found here
- The national mail survey of
rural raion newspapers' editors has been launched in March 2002.
The preparation of the survey involved reviewing the relevant scholarly
literature and materials of the public debate on the issue, compiling
the database of rural raion newspapers and conducting the preliminary
content analysis of the publications in those newspapers. The survey
is being conducted with the support of the Coordinating Council on
the Agrarian Policy under the Cabinet of Ministries of Ukraine. The first
wave of 415 questionnaires (out of 492 newspapers identified) has been
sent out and one quarter of questionnaires have been filled in by
editors and returned by now. 84 questionnaires have been processed and analyzed,
and tentative conclusions based on data analysis has been included into the
final research report. However, sending the second (and the last) wave of
questionnaires has been only recently completed (it is needed in order
to form representative sample). It means that the research results
based on this part of the project will be finalized later. The part
presented in the final research report traces the tendencies which are unlikely
to loose their validity by the research completion..
As the mail survey of raion newspapers'
editors has not been included into the initial research and project
design, there is a need to justify the decision to launch it.
First, the importance of rural raion
newspapers for informing peasants about their rights as land owners
is very high because significant part of rural newspapers' readers
prefer them and other local (oblast or regional) newspapers. Second,
the overwhelming majority of the rural raion newspapers are founded
by raion state administrations and, by the nature of such a status, are potentially
very important channel and instrument of the state information policy in the
sphere of land and agricultural reforms. Third, rural raion newspapers will
keep being very important part of the Ukrainian rural information space in
the years to come and their current status (ownership), financial, information,
human, etc. resources need to be assessed in order to construct rural information
environment more susceptible to peasants' information needs. The final point
is closely connected to the last one. The issue of the journalist freedom,
freedom of speech and development of the independent mass media is high on
the public agenda. The debate over the status of the rural raion newspapers
has been only recently initiated, from this standpoint. Given the absence
of the sufficient advertisement market in the rural areas and alternative
sources of financing, and highly uneven development of the rural information
space (the possibility to watch national TV, radio, not to mention subscription
to national and even local newspapers), this issue has to be solved very
carefully.
The goal of the survey is to analyze
current financial, human and information resources of the rural raion
newspapers, 'the degree of their freedom' from the raion authorities,
their responsiveness to the needs of their rural audiences, and to
get raion newspapers' editors' expert evaluation of the peasants' awareness
of their land and property ownership rights, of the rural information space
and adequacy of the land reform coverage by the only one national TV broadcast
"Silskyj chas" [Rural time] and oblast TV, radio and newspapers. The survey
is aimed at receiving raion editors' proposals on improving the peasants'
awareness of their rights and conditions of the raion newspapers as well.
The survey of raion newspapers'
editors has not been initially included into the project design because
I did not expect that I would be able to receive the support of some national
executive agency. As soon as the support has been provided by the Coordinating
Council on Agrarian Policy under the Cabinet of Ministries (I am very grateful
for it to Mr. Roman Korinets, the Strategic Area Manager at the Council),
the survey was made possible.
The recent revival of the governmental
interest to the state information policy (newly appointed Head of the
State Committee Mr. Chizh submitted redrafted Concept of the State
Information Policy to the Cabinet of Ministries one week ago) proved that
the decision to launch such a survey has been timely
- The legal acts regulating the sphere of
the information policy, the land and agrarian reforms in Ukraine have
been identified and analyzed
- The sociological research and surveys
exploring attitudes towards and perception of the land and agrarian reforms,
land reform awareness level of the Ukrainian peasants and Ukrainian population
at large have been identified and analyzed
- Existing institutional framework of the
information policy in the sphere of the land and agrarian reforms
and, in a broader sense, of the institutions called upon to provide
information support of the on-going and prospective reforms and state programs
has been analyzed
- The database of all research materials
has been compiled and it will be posted on the website
3. SEMINAR /
CONFERENCES PARTICIPATION
During the period of the Project implementation,
the following conferences and seminars have been attended:
1) “The Role of Agrarian Information
in the Transition to European Integration”, Kyiv, Ukraine,
21-26 May 2001
The conference has been organized by the The Ministry of Agrarian
Policy of Ukraine, The Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International
Association of the Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD), etc.
The following topics have been addressed by the conference participants:
- Role of agricultural statistical, scientific,
technical and market information on path to European integration
- International organizations and development
of agricultural information systems
- European cooperation in creation and
distribution of agricultural information
- International exchange by agricultural
information using WEB-technologies and its standardization
- Creation and utilization of banks (bases)
of agricultural statistical and scientific and technical information of
mass using
- Library resources: development and exchange.
Cooperation between National agricultural libraries
- The development systems of information
and consulting service (Extension Service)
- The distant agricultural education and
consulting
The purpose of my attending this conference has been to receive
first-hand information about recent initiative of the Ministry of Agrarian
Policy of Ukraine to deploy the network of agricultural consulting centers
throughout the country.
Raison d’etre of the centers is to provide business, legal,
financial, technological etc advice and consulting services to the whole
range of agricultural business entities, from large agricultural enterprises
to small private house holdings conducting profit-oriented activity.
2) 5th Conference of the Polish Association
“Cities on the Internet” titled “Information Society
as a Guarantee of Democracy”, 20-23 June
2001, Zakopane, Poland
The conference was held under the honorary patronage of DG INFSO
of European Commission, Council of European Municipalities and Regions
(CEMR), European Local Authorities Telematic Network Initiative (ELANET),
President of Poland, Parliamentary Commission of Self-government and Regional
Politics, State Committee of Scientific Research and Ministry of Telecommunications.
It has been organized by Federation of Municipalities and Regions,
Krakow, Poland, "Cities on Internet" Association, Tarnów, National
Contact Point of 5 th Framework Programme in Poland - Institute of Basic
Technological Problems at Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Municipium
S.A., Warsaw, Tatrzanski District, Zakopane and Association of Polish Cities,
Poznan.
The purpose of my participation has been to acquire the insight
into the recent developments and experience of information society building
and ICT applications in local government-citizens communication, ICT component
of the state information policy in Poland and European Union, and to explore
opportunities for launching similar projects in Ukraine, forming the
partnerships of Ukrainian and Polish local governments, and securing funding
for such activities from the EU, international organizations
3) The Second International Conference
"Information, Analysis, Prognosis - Strategic Factors of Effective
State Governance", October 11-12, 2001, Kyiv, Ukraine
The conference has been organized by the Ministry of Education and
Science of Ukraine and Ukrainian Institute of Scientific, Technical and
Economic Information (UkrINTEI).
The following topics have been brought by organizers to the discussion:
- An importance of prognostic and analytical
information technologies for developing state scientific, technical and
socio-economic policies
- The role of prognostic and analytical
activity in meeting the information needs of the clients of national and
regional levels, industrial sectors, enterprises and organizations of all
property forms
- Scientific methods of prognostic and
analytical activity
- Information resources and technologies
- the basis for prognostic and analytical work
- An experience of Ukrainian and foreign
think tanks
- Training and retraining analysts and
prognosists in Ukraine
I presented the paper "The Ukrainian state information policy in
the sphere of the Land and Agrarian Reforms: preliminary research results"
published in the conference proceedings
4) Public Relations Winter School
, Mass
Media Center, the Department of Journalism, the St Petersburg
State University, January 28 - February 6, 2002, St Petersburg,
Russian Federation
The program of the Winter School covered the following issues:
- Integrated marketing communications
and PR-technologies
- PR-technologies in business
- Political and governmental Public Relations
- Crisis PR
- Technologies of manipulation
The presentation of the issue "Political and governmental PR" by
leading department professors, the possibility to discuss the reality
of Russian governmental PR with leading scholars of St Petersburg State
University and to get 'first hand' experience of how PR industry (including
the issue of providing PR services to the central, city and oblast governments)
develops in the North-Western region underpinned my application for the
participation in the Winter School.
On a formal side, I have successsfully completed the course and
received the certificate of the school. Overall, I am satisfied with
my participation in the school as all my expectations have been fulfilled.
I managed to take an interview with the head of the Leningradskaja oblast
press-service and to have fruiful discussions of governmental PR issues
with political scientists and PR scholars at the university, and in leading
PR agencies of St Petersburg and Leningradskaja oblast.
4. PUBLICATIONS
1. N.Korchakova,
A.Marusov. The Fifth Wheel in a Peasant Cart? The Role of Public Organizations
in Land Reform in Ukraine // National Security and Defence, #
5 (17), 2001
The journal “National Security and Defence” is published
by the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies, the leading
Ukrainian think-tank.
2. А.Марусов. Информационная
политика украинского государства в сфере аграрной и земельной реформы:
предварительные результаты исследования [forthcoming in the conference
proceedings of the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic
Information]
The ideas for further publications on the basis of the research conducted
are being developed.