Southern civil society organizations as practical hybrids : Dealing with legitimacy in a Ugandan gender advocacy organization

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which Southern civil society organizations (CSOs) navigate between diverse audiences and logics in relation to which their legitimacy is negotiated. Drawing on the notions of practical hybrids and organizational legitimacy in hybrid organizations, the chapter explores the legitimacy audiences and logics relevant to a Ugandan gender advocacy organization, Action for Development (ACFODE). The chapter identifies five influential legitimacy audiences – central government, local government, project participants in the communities, international development partners, and other Ugandan gender CSOs. Further, it establishes four significant logics in alignment to which an organization’s legitimacy is evaluated – patrimonialism, professionalism, community, and activism – which the organization balances in its effort to address its core concern, gender equality. The chapter highlights the importance of paying adequate attention to Southern CSOs’ webs of significant relationships rather than limiting the focus of both research and practice regarding CSO collaborations to the North–South dyad.