Private sector gets facelift

…as BUSAC gets a plus …as BUSAC gets a plus
Posted: The Chronicle |Thursday, February 18, 2010

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade & Industry
Industry players are gradually gaining confidence in some private sector initiatives, and their ability to partner the public sector in the development of the nation.
Typical is the case of the Director of the Local Government Training Institute (LGTI), Dr. Esther Ofei-Aboagye, who is overwhelmed at the contribution of the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC-fund) to the development of the nation, since it became operational five years ago.

“Overall, the work of the BUSAC-fund has provided several initiatives and beginnings that could lead to real change in public sector responsiveness to private sector enablement,” was how she put it.

Beyond collaboration in investments, she said the BUSAC-fund’s interventions has fostered partnerships between the public sector and private sector groupings, by helping to break down walls of suspicion, and fostering cooperation and familiarisation.

Speaking at a BUSAC end-of-project event in Accra, Dr. Ofei-Aboagye stressed on the belief that public sector agencies’ suspicion of civil society groups and business associations and economic groupings, had reduced enough to respond to such invitations, and through the collaboration, gaining key contact points within the business community to work with.

That notwithstanding, she stated that considerable interest had been built amongst business associations to be pro-active in demanding engagement with public sector agencies.

She commended the management team of the project, and all stakeholders who helped in making the difference.

On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr. Joyce Aryee, emphasised how useful the Fund has been to the Chamber.

This, according to her, was evident in the fact that the BUSAC-fund had enhanced the Chamber’s advocacy capacity.

Furthermore, she noted, it had also been able to make impacts on the activities of regulatory bodies, including the Minerals Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other civil society organisations.

BUSAC aims to make an impact by enabling the private sector, including business membership organisations, trades unions and media, to influence public policy formulation by undertaking appropriate research, developing evidence based policy positions, and advocating those positions with the government and other private sector institutions/organisations, which may be targeted by the action.

It was originally launched by DANIDA, as part of the broader Business Sector Programme Support, but now attracts support from the DFID (which is pooling its support through an arrangement with DANIDA) and the USAID (which is willing to support export related advocacy projects).

The arrangement to involve DFID and USAID is covered under a Memorandum of Understanding, agreed and signed in March 2005.

The fund management has been contracted by DANIDA to COWI, which has appointed Dr. Dale Rachmeler as Project Manager. He is assisted by a team recruited locally.

The Fund is accessible through a competitive demand-driven mechanism, and transparent selection of the best advocacy actions proposed by associations within the Private Sector.

The BUSAC-fund finances, through grants, up to 90% of the cost of the Advocacy Actions that are selected in each “Call for Application.”

The Actions are then implemented by the Grantees themselves, with the help of the Service Providers they may have chosen to complement theirs.