To date, public awareness of the role of the WTO has largely focussed on the protests surrounding its biannual ministerial meetings, most notably in Seattle in November 1999. However both in Seattle, and subsequently, a less visible process of dialogue between civil society and trade policy makers has been developing at national level. These stakeholders include non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with poor and marginalised communities. A number of governments from both developing and developed countries included NGO representatives on their official delegations to the Seattle and Doha (2001) Ministerials. The aim of the exercise is twofold: involving a wide group of stakeholders in policy design should lead to trade policies that better reflect the needs and interests of the public, and should also encourage more widespread ‘ownership’ of national trade policies, helping to avoid damaging splits between governments and the organisations of the poor. This paper looks at two examples of stakeholder involvement from East Africa - Uganda and Kenya.