Rodale's Russia RARC:

The Foundation for Agrarian Development Research (FADR)

This new project began on June 1, 1994, funded by a grant from USAID through World Learning, Inc. and a sub-contract to Rodale Institute.

The goal of the FADR is to become an institution that has the capability to establish networks of local community-based projects, facilitate regional, national, and international information exchange, and influence national agrarian policy. The role of RI in this initiative is to:

• Assist FADR to strengthen its partnerships among Russian NGOs by building collaborative individual and institutional relationships around important rural development issues;
• Strengthen FADR's administrative, management and communications capability;
• Bring to FADR and its partner NGOs electronic technology that enables information exchange both within and outside Russia, thus supporting the development of information networks and sharing of information resources.

The project will improve the FADR's capability to use information exchange processes to establish community-based partnerships for planning and implementing projects that address: 1) local and regional development issues; and 2) national policy initiatives derived from local and regional experiences. The project's activities are located in four regions of Russia:

• Tver, 200 km from Moscow;
• Orel, 400 km from Moscow;
• Lower Volga, 1200 km from Moscow; and
• Novosibirsk, 3500 km from Moscow.

Activities include:

• A survey of private and public institutions involved in agrarian reform;
• Setting up information exchange by working with one or more institutions to publish a regional newsletter;
• Workshops to design multi-institutional rural development projects of mutual interest to local institutions that benefit rural populations;
• Support for information and financial management, and monitoring the implementation of the new projects;
• Monitoring the effects of changing agrarian reform policies on socioeconomic viability and ecological sustainability of private farms.
• Development of a national information exchange network;
• Convening national symposia where regional information can be used to discuss the effects of changing agrarian policy.
• Setting up a Russia/U.S. information exchange process;
• Convening an electronic conference on agricultural privatization.

Project Staff:

Alexander Makeev, Ph.D., Project Director