While the Southern African region came to the conference under its regional banner, the three East African countries are moving to different beats as they wait for the signing of the East Africa Community regional treaty.

The head of the Ugandan delegation, Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Tomasi Kiryapawo says the amendment of Uganda's Constitution in 1995 has seen rapid movement towards gender equality.

Since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, women members of parliament have increased to 53, with 14 holding ministerial portfolios. The vice president, Dr Specioza Kazibwe, is a woman. "With women's empowerment and education, more women MPs and ministers should be seen in the 286-seat parliament soon," says Tomasi.

He says another stride taken to give a voice to women is by the local government that has set aside 30 percent of its representation for women. "And then the women can contest the remaining 70 percent with the men. This makes them quite a formidable force."

The Ugandan youth representative, Harriet Tereka says youth are given a say in the country's policy decisions but the greatest challenge is the AIDS/HIV menace, which is especially devastating to women and children. "We are sensitising people on the prevention of AIDS throughout the country and it is our desire that the problem is eradicated from Uganda," she says.

The Kenyan delegation to the conference says the secret to moving mountains and seeing the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms of Action is to have women working together. This solidarity will make the concerned groups act quickly. Zipporah Kittony, chairperson of the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation, the national women body in Kenya, and a Member of Parliament, says some of the country's prioritised objectives have been met. The government has put up a commission to look at the eradication of poverty in Kenya by 2016. A family court has been set up to give women privacy in presenting their cases and in all ministries dealing with development, a women's desk has been set up.

"The anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) campaign is fifty percent successful with three districts adopting alternative initiation rituals," says Ms Kittony.

Phoebe Asiyo, the chairperson of the Women Political Caucus, a body that advocates for full political participation for women, says Kenya is doing badly in the political arena. Though Kenyan women make up 51 per cent of the population, there are only nine women MPs in the parliament, which has 222 members. Kenya has no woman cabinet minister.

Unlike Kenya where women comprise only three percent of members of parliament, Tanzania has reserved fifteen percent of its parliamentary seats for women and it hopes to raise this to thirty percent. Since Beijing, Tanzania has incorporated a Social Dimensions of Development programme to assist women and other vulnerable groups to adjust to the adverse effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).