Mrs Gifty Ohene-Konadu, a Director at the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs , on Friday said though women participated in local government they did that only as peripheral staff with little or no authority to influence policy.

She said this could be attributed to ignorance and insensitivity to gender issues of women assembly members themselves, development planners, government decision makers and international agencies.

Mrs Ohene Konadu was presenting a paper on "Barriers to Women's Participation in Ghana's Local Government System" at a seminar to disseminate information on social policy issues.

It was organised by the Centre for Social Policy Studies (CSPS). The paper, which is a report of a research conducted in March and July 1999, addressed three major questions: - "How does decentralisation provide access to women's participation?" "What explains the low numbers and ineffectiveness of women in decision-making levels in local government?" and "What ways can the gender barriers be removed?"

Mrs Ohene-Konadu said cultural practices and societal division of labour that requireD that the woman engaged in traditional, productive and reproductive roles also hindered the woman's ability to enter and participate in assemblies at the local government level.

She noted that in Uganda and South Africa, for instance, a lot of women participated in local government as a result of the constitutional reservation of seats for women in all local councils in the context of decentralisation.

However, they had not been effective in influencing government policies because they did not occupy high status where they could exert the needed influence to affect policies.

She said in Ghana, though 30 per cent of seats had been reserved for women in the assemblies after the Beijing Declaration, these seats were not fully occupied. Women constituted only seven per cent of the total membership of the assemblies.

Mrs Ohene-Konadu attributed this to the low literacy rate of women, lack of financial support, lack of titles to land, lack of interest and commitment due to family issues.

She said as the constraints facing women's participation in local government were complex and multi-dimensional, the different actors from governmental, non-governmental organisations, civil society and the donor community must work together to provide effective programmes to increase women's presence in government.