The strategic role of the Food Research Institute in productivity enhancement and the private sector development in Ghana

The Private Sector Development Project (PSDP) was a culmination of the renewed commitment of the Government of Ghana to accelerate the pace of development of Ghana’s private sector. The project was also a direct result of the Business Community’s own assessment of Lingering issues which impeded growth of the private sector. The key policy objective of the project was to adequately develop the private sector to become the effective engine of growth for the country. The Food Research Institute’s component of the PSDP was initiated with a clear objective of re-orienting the Food Research Institute (FRI) from a subvention-oriented institute to a partly self-financing organisation able to operate and survive in a commercial setting and to support the growth of the private sector. After a decade of implementation, what are the experiences? This paper looks at the management of the commercialisation process. The implementation process, the attitude of research scientists towards the change and the impact of the commercialisation process on the socio-economic development of Ghana are discussed. The constraint of commercialisation including inadequate uptake of research, which is a reflection of inappropriate monitoring and evaluation, is discussed. The paper seeks to review among others the background of the PSDP, the original tasks targeted at project initiation, and the successes and failures of the project. An attempt has been made to review a number of relevant conceptual and practical issues of private sector development in Ghana in an evolutionary perspective. Against this backdrop, the paper seeks to define, in a focused manner, the management framework of the Food Research Institute: From “Strategic Planning” to “Strategic Learning”.