As the fifth UN Conference on Women draws to a close, it seems a good moment to ask some of the 10,000 participants how they are feeling about it.

"It's a slow and backward sliding process," says an NGO delegate from Kyrgyztan; "It's such a wonderful forum for meeting women from other countries doing inspiring work," says an activist from Honduras; "How on earth do you make news out of these people taking four hours to decide on the placement of a comma and one word in a document?" complains a US journalist in the corridor outside one of the negotiating rooms of the UN.

A lot of time and energy is being spent on negotiating, word for word, the language of the outcomes document (UN jargon for the final document). There is a lot of concern that the bulk of the energy is being spent in making sure that we are not sliding backwards rather than finding the ways to move forward as a strong international women's movement.

Driving the feeling of disappointment and disillusionment home was a protest today at which the women zipped their lips with adhesive labels which said Beijing ­5.

Confusion is a key feature of the conference with government delegations and NGOs alike spending a good deal of their time trying to find the meetings that they are wanting to attend and finding that the venue has changed, or the time. But these are the least of the problems; more disturbing is the hijacking of many of the issues by rank reactionaries. At a number of forums where important issues such as globalisation or women and media are being discussed, the "panel of experts" turns out to be composed of professionals who are not necessarily feminists or women committed to social justice.

It is clear that there is no one kind of feminism. But one group that is certainly not feminist, even though they bandy that label, are the polished professional consultants and experts who are in it solely for the money. These are the women who claim that women are not oppressed if they get good enough at their jobs to keep up with the competition.

The real feminists are fighting to get all governments to accept that sexism, poverty, classism, racism and homophobia are linked and want to see this connection recognized in all the work of the women's movement too. As Devaki Jain, feminist economist and long-time activist, says: "The women's movement needs to side with those women at the bottom of the pile."

The NGOs are concerned that even though they are now part of the process -- a hard-earned victory -- they still do not have a sufficient voice to do battle with entrenched interests. They are unable to influence the government reports which reflect on the triumphs over the last five years and fail to address the problems and challenges women face. Jain says: "The Beijing Platform for Action lay around virtually untouched for four years. When the call came for a report on the progress, governments quickly drew up whatever they could to make themselves look good".

In some instances, the government reports were not seen until the day before the delegates left for New York. At that point it was difficult to make changes.

Shanaaz Mathews of the Gender Advocacy Programme, GAP, and part of the South African NGO delegation, suggests that much more organization needs to happen before the event so that each country's delegates know each other and are able to be in touch during the conference. Sonu Chhina, journalist and youth activist based in Delhi, has found that she is asked to tell her country's official delegation about very basic information about the negotiations.

Asked what the key issues are for her and how they are faring in the conference, China says: "Sexual rights and sexual orientation; for the first issue there is a big battle on in the closed contact group to which we don't have access. On the issue of sexual orientation government delegates think that it can be sacrificed for something less contentious."

Lydia Alpizar, youth activist working with Mexican NGO Elige feels that women are losing ground in this Beijing +5 process: "I can't believe that the platforms have been re-opened. There is a real lack of political will and commitment to women's rights".

She feels that it is a harsh lesson for the women's movement not to rely on governments to take their agenda forward. "The gains we have are through our own efforts and we cannot put all our eggs in one basket".

The most militant proposal reflecting this view was made by Jain at the NGO working conference: She said NGOs should not limit their work to monitoring what their governments are doing; they need to take the initiative and force the pace of progress. The next meeting, she said, should be organised by the NGOs, with the UN and governments invited as observers!

* Gabrielle Le Roux is a member of the Global Women's Media Team (GWMT) for the UN General Assembly Special Session to Review the Beijing Platform for Action. GWMT is composed of NGO women and women journalists from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The GWMT is coordinated by Isis International-Manila and supported by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in East and South East Asia and South Asia, the Canadian International Development Agency - South East Asia Gender Equity Programme, United Nations Development Program in Latin America, the Caribbean and Mongolia, World Council of Churches, Foundation for Sustainable Soceity, Inc., NCOS-Pilipinas, the British High Commission, and WomenAction.