A selection of resources from FCM on women in local government

This guide is designed to be a resource for women and for men who wish to promote the role of women in municipal politics. When reading this guide, remember that there is no single way to conduct election campaigns. In addition, this guide is by no means exhaustive. Municipal election policies and regulations vary by province and territory.

The quest for increased female representation and participation at the local level government in Ghana has not been obtained probably because we have neglected the demand and supply side factors that account for the paucity of policies and programmes to promote participation of women in the local government system in Ghana. Women involvement in decisionmaking processes in governance for sustainable development is very critical not only because they constitute majority of the Ghanaian population but they are discriminated and underrepresented in the socio-economic and political development activities thereby bringing about not only a gender gap but also exclusion of women and their needs, interests and perspectives from governance. This paper examines the demand and supply side framework so as to prompt stakeholders in their bid to enhance the presence of women in the local government system in Ghana. It also looks at the concept of local government system in Ghana and examines the statistics of women’s representation in the district assemblies. It concludes that women must strive to empower themselves by acquiring the knowledge, skills, resources (i.e. time, money) and motivation. NGOs, political parties as well as government and its agencies should put in place positive discriminatory policies and programmes as well as legislations that will bring social change to encourage and attract women in local level governance.

This Framework outlines key considerations for developing a party’s gender policy, and addresses a variety of thematic areas essential for the advancement of women and promotion of gender equality within political parties, including leadership formation, internal decision making, internal oversight and institutional development, candidate recruitment, party programmes and platform development, outreach to voters, and campaigns.