Bolgatanga, June 14, GNA - The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) has appealed to district assemblies and other stakeholders to encourage and support women to contest the district level election scheduled for August.

The NALAG President, Mr George Kyei Baffour, said this in a speech read for him at its Regional Conference held in Bolgatanga on Tuesday. He said women, who were marginalize by men in many areas of endeavour, needed to be empowered and given the opportunity to participate actively in decision-making.

"Our call is premised on the accepted rule that fundamental to democracy is popular participation."

Mr Baffour appealed to district assemblies and non-governmental organisations (NGOS) working for the advancement of women to contribute to support the "Women and Local Government Fund."

The Women and Children Affairs Ministry instituted the fund to assist women in their campaign in the forthcoming district assembly election.

Mr Baffour said NALAG had initiated an "African Local Government Programme (ALGP)" aimed at enhancing good governance and the promotion of local economic development.

He cited the Kumasi Metropolitan, Sunyani, Ho and Wa Municipalities as pilot areas for the ALGP.

Mr Baffour mentioned the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) as another of the initiatives being carried out by his outfit. It focuses on local economic development in the area of tourism and the CLGF is already on-going in Tema Municipal, Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan and Wassa Amenfi East District assemblies. The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Awudu Yiremeah, urged NALAG to educate the people at the grassroots level to ensure that the right calibre of people were elected into the assemblies. He called on NALAG to strategise and adopt the necessary approaches that would enable it to realize the full potential in revenue mobilisation for development, instead of solely relying on the Common Fund from the central government.