The Paramount Chief of New Juaben Traditional Area and Life-Patron of the newly constituted Media-Corporate Response Initiative (M-CRI), Daasebre Prof (Emeritus) Oti Boateng has called on Government and media stakeholders to consider a provision in the Media Development Fund.

+The purpose he said would support the media in Business advocacy as a tribute to the huge sacrifices by the BUSAC Fund to cultivate the culture of Business advocacy amongst the media in the country.

The M-CRI is an initiative under the Ghana Journalists Association, B&FT & BUSAC Fund to harness the institutional potential of the Media to Promote Local Partnership and Participatory planning to promote SME & Rural Economic Development.

In his view, the BUSAC Fund engagement has proven clearly that a business advocacy-sensitive media is key to enhancing a competitive business environment for private sector Development particularly the SMEs. He acknowledged that this role has also been assigned to the media under the local government system and any such initiative by government to support the development of the Media to incorporate Business advocacy as part of the objectives of the Media Development fund.

He contended that with the imminent exit of the BUSAC Fund project, the Media Development fund would be an appropriate policy mechanism to complement the efforts of the development partners of DANIDA-USAID-EU to sustain media engagement in business advocacy as an integral part of the overall strategy at ensuring private sector competitiveness in the country.

According to him, this has become extremely important given the fact that Ghana under the current BUSAC Fund arrangement is serving as a pilot case for Africa to influence development funding for business advocacy as a private sector development strategy. The Media has made a strong case following the BUSAC intervention in Media Business advocacy under the Ghana Journalists Association, B&FT and Citi-fm etc to merit support from the Media Development Fund. This should be considered as part of the Media development strategy to strengthen the case for media in business advocacy not only in Ghana but Africa as a whole.

He added that, the development partners recognizing the critical importance of Business advocacy as a missing link in an attempt to improve the environment for private sector competiveness, introduced the BUSAC Fund project to forge Media partnership to take-up business advocacy in line with the Vision 2020, GPRS I, GPRS II and the current Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) to enhance Private Sector Competitiveness at the district level as the lead sector that will generate employment, provide efficient support services, information communication and technology and enhance the creation of wealth.

It was against this background that BUSAC fund has over the past six years devoted over US$1,000,000 funding towards building the capacity of the media to fulfil this fundamental mandate, which has culminated in the establishment of the Media-Corporate Response Initiative (M-CRI) under the GJA. The current initiative launched in October this year led to the adoption of the Twin- Media Development Thematic Area of SME and Rural Economic Development for 2012-2014 and the declaration of October as the Media development month by GJA to recognize media role in Business advocacy and Local Economic Development. Daasebre said, the M-CRI initiative is intended to forge Media-State partnership as a new development paradigm for Ghana to pilot a model for the rest of Africa in SME and Rural Economic Development. He said, the initiative is in line with the demands of the GPRS II and the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) on the districts to enhance Private Sector Competitiveness at the district level.

He has, therefore, called for a non-partisan consideration of the Media Development Fund by all stakeholders to redirect an aspect of it towards sustaining media role in business advocacy under the current Media-Corporate Response Initiative to serve as an exit strategy for BUSAC Fund to sustain business advocacy in Ghana.

He underscored the fact that such an initiative would be a major tribute to the efforts of the development partners in incorporating business advocacy as a key building block for private sector competitiveness which is the major thematic pillar of GPRS 1, GPRS II and GSGDA.

Daasebre also called on BUSAC Fund to exhibit its success and deliverables in all sectors of the economy to cabinet in order to bring in the government machinery for arrangements not only within the Media Development Fund, but other policy interventions as part of overall national strategy at sustaining media involvement in business advocacy which is facing sustainability challenges with the imminent exit of the BUSAC Fund project.

He has thus called on the government to re-open negotiations on how best the media could be strengthened to support business advocacy, particularly in the SME sector among other considerations under the Media Development Fund. Daasebre therefore is worried about the fact that, the initial advocacy support that led the Ghana Journalists Association to take-on the SME challenge and the introduction of the Business advocate programme on GTV is virtually collapsed due to lack of funding to sustain the project. He says, Government should as matter of urgency provide support to the current initiative from the Ghana Journalists Association and the Business & Financial Times under the Media-Corporate Response Initiative to enable the media fulfilled this important mandate.

He concluded that the current support from BUSAC Fund on the media front is not enough without government complementary intervention and urged government to reconsider Business advocacy as part of the disbursement mechanism under the Media Development fund.