Trade negotiations have a focus on technical detail and this acts to exclude the radical and favour the mainstream and powerful. This lack of space for critical and alternative discourse on trade policy is an obstacle for those advocating on behalf of the poor, while a lack of funding for independent research on trade further hamstrings civil society organisations trying to make an input into international trade policy.

These are some of the conclusions of a paper from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) that examines the way that a range of development actors view and engage with the arena of trade policy, focusing in particular on the challenges encountered by civil society actors participating in that arena.

The paper examines the views and perspectives of two sets of civil society actors (UK based international non-government organisations, and Ugandan and Kenyan civil society organisations) about their experiences and strategies of engagement and participation.

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