BUSAC aims to make an impact by enabling the private sector, including business membership organizations, trades unions and media, to influence public policy formulation by undertaking appropriate research, developing evidence based policy positions and advocating those positions with government and other private sector institutions/organization who may be targeted by the action.
BUSAC was originally launched by DANIDA as part of the broader Business Sector Programme Support but now attracts support from DFID (which is pooling its support through an arrangement with DANIDA) and 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 who have appointed Dr. Dale Rachmeler as the 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.
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 their own
What are the overall Objectives of the BUSAC Fund?- A broader engagement of the Private Sector in policy making and policy implementation (at national, regional and local levels);
- A strengthened capacity of representative organizations of the Private Sector to advocate for pro-business sector reform in Ghana (and in the long run support the Ghanaian economy and thus contribute to Poverty Reduction);
- An improvement of the Private Sector, by assisting to remove bottlenecks at all levels of administration but also within the Private Sector itself; and
- A broadened public understanding of the role of businesses in society.
