Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung@ 40 in Ghana critical examination of those agreements Similar workshops were also run for ECOWAS Parliamentarians to find a common ground on the basis of which their respective Governments were to be entreated to negotiate those multilateral agreements. A catalogue of the benefits derived by the Parliament of Ghana from FES cooperation may not be exhaustive without making reference to study tours that took both the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Select Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry to Geneva to participate in a WTO seminar, and the Chairman to a WTO Conference in Germany. Members of the Committee also benefited from the Workshop on“Development Strategies” in Africa preceding the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – UNCTAD XII- held in Ghana in 2008 at which topical issues relating to African development strategies, development finance and liberalisation, and trade, growth and poverty were discussed. Revitalisation of the local government sector brought in its wake a massive decentralisation programme. Again FES rallied to the support of Parliament by organising series of workshops to position the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development to effectively exercise its oversight responsibility in effectuating the programme. In the area of women empowerment, FES spearheaded the establishment of the Women's Caucus in Parliament. Within a relatively short period of its existence the Caucus has carved an indelible footprint on the international stage through effective participation in programmes of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the African Parliamentary Union. In 2007 the Caucus emerged as a force to reckon with by organising a Women Parliamentarians' Conference in Ghana and galvanising a distinguished patronage from across the African continent. 21