The Speaker of Parliament, Joyce Bamford Addo, has asked political parties to adopt the quota system to rectify imbalances in women’s representation in politics. She said even though some people argue that the quota system is undemocratic and therefore unrepresentative, individual nations and political parties would benefit from it because of the versatility of women. Mrs Bamford-Addo was opening the second West African Conference of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) in Accra on Monday. It had the theme: “Increasing women’s participation in politics in Commonwealth West Africa - the role of political parties.” Women Parliamentarians from Ghana, The Gambia, Cameroon, Nigeria and Sierra Leone are attending the three-day conference, to deliberate on issues affecting women, particularly, their role in decision making. The speaker noted that despite the fact that many governments had adopted and adapted affirmative action measures, “the figure still indicates that globally, women are nowhere near half of the decision-making bodies. “The threshold of 30 per cent advocated by the UNDP Human Development Report, as a prelude to the 50 per cent continues to remain an illusion for most women. Women constitute only 19 per cent membership of Parliaments in most countries,” she said. Mrs. Bamford Addo observed that political parties and governments had the tendency of manipulating and patronising women in the name of affirmative action, to mobilise support for governments to remain in power. “I will urge the Association of Commonwealth Women parliamentarians (West Africa sub-region) to develop itself into a strong women political force or movement and be very assertive so that, affirmative action can bring about true gains by way of representation, leading to effective representation of women,” the speaker said. She also urged political parties to use Information and Communication Technology to mobilise supporters and even for fund raising for political activities through social networking to websites and the face book and also adopt gender budgeting to support women. The Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party, Samia Nkrumah, national chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, reiterated the commitment of their parties to affirmative action and the quota system. Hajia Mary Salifu Boforo, Member of Parliament for Savelugu and chairperson of Women’s Caucus of Ghana’s Parliament and the West African representative of CWP said through a voluntary political party quota system, the African National Congress in South Africa had 172 women in Parliament, out of 400, representing 45 per cent of the parliamentarians and Senegal, without any particular legislation, had 40 women in Parliament out of 100 representing 40 per cent. Hajia Boforo warned that the persistent gender disparity in power Structures at the national and local levels would continue to impact negatively on the responsiveness of both national and local government to women’s needs and gender concern. The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs and Member of Parliament for Ho East, Juliana Azumah-Menah, said “there is no doubt that when the Electoral Code and Legal framework on elections effectively reflected affirmative action measures with focus on gender mainstreaming within structures and processes of our political parties, we will definitely achieve the goals of an increased number of women in Parliament governance and decision-making in West Africa.” The Majority Leader in Parliament, and Member of Parliament for Zebilla, Cletus Avoka, said there was the need to address socio-cultural challenges and other impediments to give women a level playing field to participate in decision-making and governance. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Minority Leader in Parliament and Member of Parliament for Suame, noted that the women’s representation in parliament had been dwindling over the years and, therefore, called for measures to address it.