Privatization and economic restructuring program : public information and communication (PERPCOMM) : final report -- public education for land privatization

The initial task order focused on educating the general public on the right to own personal land and real estate (apartments and dachas). While more work could have been done on these subjects in the follow-on contract, this task order had a limited budget for mass media and instead focused on targeted campaigns. Largely, this meant supporting the expansion of several USAID land reform projects, particularly the roll-out of the Enterprise Land Sales (ELS) and Farm Restructuring (FARMS II) projects. Chemonics did, however, engage in some low-cost mass media activities (i.e., radio programs) to continue educating the general public on their rights to private ownership. To this end, agricultural and commercial land seminars, publications, radio programs, and mass media efforts were targeted towards the rural population, business community, and local government. For the purpose of institution building, the program used an 8:1 ratio of Russian staff to expatriate staff and subcontracted all mass media purchases (approximately 10% of the task order value) to Russian firms. The program"s communication materials reached millions of Russian households, real estate organizations, and local governments nationwide. Weekly national radio programs helped direct public debates on the issues of land privatization and the real estate market throughout the country. Media relations and media training efforts not only improved the quality and quantity of coverage on land privatization and land reform, but also helped promoted the sustainability of task order activities by ensuring a steady continuous flow of information on land reform issues. Although accurately measuring the impact of these activities without a public opinion survey is difficult, the following numbers are clear indicators of the program"s success: by 1996, more than 2,000 enterprises across the country had purchased their land, and more than 2,000 applications were pending. Seventy-one regions of Russia (80%) had accepted land privatization as the only way to a market economy, and six regions were proceeding with land privatization, although appropriate legislation had yet to be adopted by local governments. Millions of Russian citizens have received educational materials and listened to radio programs. Anecdotal evidence and the letter responses to these programs indicate that the main messages were clearly received, and provoked thought, support, and action. The following lessons were learned. (1) Having the task order support many other task orders, some of which were in the pilot phase, was a design weakness. Support should have been limited to task orders in the roll-out phase. (2) For a public information campaign on government policy to succeed, a strong and trusting relationship with government counterparts is critical.