Kyrgyzstan was one of the first countries from the former Soviet Union (FSU) to privatize agricultural land and remains the only country of the five Central Asian countries that has distributed land to the former collective and state farm members and dismantled the majority of these large farms. It is, therefore, an excellent case study from which USAID might answer some key questions, such as: Which reforms worked and which did not? What would we change about the sequence of reforms? Was the outcome of the reforms as one would expect from a theoretical point of view? Which interventions should be emulated and which should not be? Where is there still work to do? An impact assessment would ideally contain both a quantitative and qualitative review of outcomes. However, with limited funds and resources, a brief but thorough qualitative review can answer most of the questions listed above to a satisfactory degree for future planning and efforts. This review is based on a literature review of other studies related to Kyrgyzstan’s land reform, two weeks of field research, and the experience of a team that consisted of both local and international experts who have worked on land issues in Kyrgyzstan since the beginning of the reforms.
Land tenure and property rights assessment for Kyrgyzstan
