WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN GHANA

Abstract

The issue of women's participation in all spheres of life has become a major develop-mental concern world-wide. Many debates On 'the above issue have highlighted . women's marginalization in all aspects of social, economic and ,political life. The paper discusses the extent of women's participation in the governance process at the .14001,1eVo1ln the'NadOWlitri.striat of Ghana. The fieldwork 'was conducted on factors on the level of women's participation, impact of female representatives in the District Assembly and mechanisms for ensuring their active participation. A two-tier multi-stage sampling procedure involving simple random and purposive tech-niques was used to select area councils, communities, assemblypersons and commu-nity members as respondents. Key informant interviews with some heads of relevant decentralized agencies in the District were also carried out. The fieldwork revealed that, despite a marginal increase in female representation in the assembly, their num-bers wore still very low for the period 1988 to 2006. However, in spite of their low numerical strength; the study indicated that female representatives in the assembly n Charles Gylmah is a Lecturer in the Planning and Rural Development, University for Devel-opment Studies: He_specializes in project planning, monitoring and evaluation and, develop. meat policy and planning. His research interest is in participatory approaches to development rilerming, development policy analysis, analysis of poverty situation and reduction, governance of development (with emphasis on governance at the local level and decentralization processes ie Nana), integrated rural development, and tourism development planning and promotion. EdWill Thompson is an Assistant Librarian with Interests in indexing, institutional reposito-ries and management systems as will as development communications Studies in Gender and Development in Africa, 1(2008): September have exhibited a positive impact on the development of their communities. The study also identified factors that relegate women to subordinate roles. Hence, measures have been suggested to enhance active involvement of women in the governance processes at the local level.