African governments and their shadow non-governmental organisations have presented very different pictures of gender advancement on the continent to the Sixth Regional Conference on Women. Government versions were rosier than an NGO report, which questioned whether women had moved backward and not forward in many areas of female life.

But for the first time ever, their differences were aired on the same international platform in a dialogue that raised the political temperature. The joint conference is an innovation in Africa and in the world - it might be a better form to monitor advancement than parallel conferences that have been the standard. For Gladys Mutukwa, who presented the NGO report, the joint venture was an opportunity to "talk to each other and not at each other". Forty-three governments presented conference progress reports - the high number in itself is laudable because it illustrates that a consciousness has developed.

The government report, which was synthesised into a single summary, shows that countries have prioritised poverty, health promotion and education as the most critical areas for women's development. Most governments found that new critical areas have emerged in the past five years. War, economic restructuring and the AIDS pandemic have all wrought a destructive path through Africa. New economic models have meant that governments must keep a tight rein on spending: thus education and health budgets are suffering. Wars have diverted resources away from development spending into military spending. Fire fighting the fall-out from AIDS is also sapping resources.

The impact of these pressures has been most severe on women and each will require new gender strategies from governments and NGO's over the next five years. What the joint conference has done is display that the governmental and non-governmental sectors need each other in the race toward a better gender millennium.

As the beneficiaries of donor funds and with a great selection of talents and resources, NGOs are at the forefront of development. They are a vital push factor in ensuring governments get their gender house in order. A Moroccan delegate said, "The next century will be a century of NGO's. Governments should commit to support them because without them, the promotion of women will not be taken seriously." Not all government delegations were this complimentary about the sector.

The head of the Zambian delegation, Michael Sata, said that NGO's did not understand the realities of the countries they worked in because they had an urban bias while most poor women are rural-dwellers.

The government report won conference kudos for constitutional reforms to entrench equality, national structures they have set up to advance women and for some best practices. Women's juries, mobile schools, enrolment quotas for young girls, and a children's parliament were all cited as examples of a "culture of hope" that has imbued African women. "Five years is a short time in which to measure development. Durable change is built over time and needs a change in values. The action that has been taken must be lauded."