Renowned scholar and Paramount Chief of New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Professor Emeritus Oti Boateng, has been appointed to lead a media coalition project to promote rural economic development. The Media-Corporate Response Initiative (M-CRI) provides an advocacy platform for the media, as a corporate entity, to adopt and implement programmes that promote local partnership for a sustainable district level micro-finance regime. The Business & Financial Times (B&FT) is currently implementing the initiative with the Azongo Development Planning consult, under the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund. Daasebre Oti Boateng will serve as its first patron and Chair. He is currently the UN High Commissioner on the International Civil Service Commission and the Vice-Chancellor of the World Academy of Letters. A press release signed by Mrs. Edith Dankwa, Executive Director of the B&FT on behalf of the media partners said “the media as an institution is adding a new chapter of agenda-implementation to its current agenda setting role as a Media Corporate Social Responsibility”. The statement highlighted the role played by the media under the BUSAC intervention, especially the success chalked by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in drawing attention to the plight of SMEs through the Business Advocate Programme. Daasebre Oti Boateng is expected to use his vast experience to play an advisory and ambassadorial role for the M-CRI project, leading to the establishment of an official media development organ, and the creative use of the media in combating poverty through micro-finance and enterprise development initiatives. “Daasebre’s appointment as a patron and ambassador to this pioneering initiative is what is required to unite the media fraternity to support national development and the decentralization system in Ghana”, the release said. Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/Luv Fm/Ghana